


Walking Dead: Dixon Brother's Sister

by dramagirl007



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-23 22:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 51,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2557274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dramagirl007/pseuds/dramagirl007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merle and Daryl have a younger half sister Amanda Duggins. She is fifteen years younger than Daryl and twenty years younger than Merle. She lives with her mom, and spends the summers with her brothers and they teach her how to survive in situations. The other nine months of the year she goes to a community college part time and works part time, she is 20 years old and this is her adventure during the Apocalypse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Amanda Lynn Duggins was conceived by a one night stand between her mother and father, her mom, Janet was 35 at the time, never been married and never had any kids. Her dad Will was 40 at the time and already raised one son Merle, he was 20 at the time and his younger son Daryl was a fifteen year old teenager at the time. Janet and Amanda lived in Knoxville, TN, the Dixons lived about 3 ½ hours away from there in Auburn, GA.

Amanda has brown hair like her brothers', hers is long to her shoulder blades, she has brown eyes like her mother. Her favorite color is pink and she likes to collect angels.

   
Amanda didn’t know about her dad for many years. And never got the chance to meet him. She was told he didn’t want anything to do with her. The only thing she knew about her father was his name was Will Dixon and she had two older brothers, Merle and Daryl.  
She never met her brothers until after Will died of Alcohol poisoning. It was only then did the Dixon brothers find out they had a younger sister and it was their duty to tell her and her mother what happened.  
Amanda was very surprised when she met her older brothers. She knew she had older brothers but never met them until now, she was also surprised to find out her dad has passed away. The brothers didn’t look that upset about the passing of their father and they were relieved their little sister never had the pleasure of meeting such a bastard.  
“Trust us kid, our dear old dad was not someone you would want to meet.” Merle said.

  
Over the years the three siblings got to know each other better. Janet let Amanda spend the summers with her brothers. They were survivalists and wanted Amanda to be prepared with whatever was thrown her way. They taught her how to track, how to shoot guns, how to fight body combat, how to shoot a crossbow, and bow and arrows, how to tie knots, how to fish, showed her different plants and showed her how to eat them. Taught her how to kill poisonous snakes and how to eat them. She really didn’t understand why she needed to learn all of this, but it was fun. They taught her about bug out bags and what to put in them. Merle and Daryl put together Amanda’s first bug out bag for Christmas when Amanda was fifteen. It didn’t have everything, but it had a lot. It included a portable water purifier, waterproof matches, a waterproof reusable poncho, a sleeping bag, flashlight with extra batteries, rope, a first aid kit with full sized boxes of medicine and bandages. Foldable toothbrush with full sized toothpaste, a tube of wet ones. Emergency rations bars for a week. A multipurpose tool, light sticks, razors, 2 survival knives, duct tape, Tube tent, a Pocket Hunter with packable arrows, backpacking stove and fuel, cotton and Vaseline, strike force fire starter, windproof lighters, fishing line, insect spray.  
Amanda added some clothes items to her bug out bag also three liters of water that she changed out regularly and Nature Valley granola bars and trail mix, also gum and hard candy which she changed out regularly. She also added a survival handbook.  
On Amanda’s 18th birthday, Merle and Daryl gifted her with her very own crossbow. The Barnett Lady Raptor FX crossbow with scope. It is black and pink and weighs 6.5 pounds, has a 150 pound draw weight. 330 feet per second. She was so excited when she received it, now she wouldn’t be bugging Daryl to use his all the time. It also came with a black and pink sling.

  
Amanda practiced shooting her crossbow all the time, she joined an archery team and was really good, she sometimes won. Merle and Daryl went to some of the competitions. The first time she won an archery competition was when Merle and Daryl was there. Her family celebrated that day and went out for pizza. Her mom had an employee take their picture of the mixed family having a good time.  
After Amanda graduated Highschool she attended Pellissippi State Community College, she got a 2000 dollar scholarship for archery and she also took out some loans and she also worked at a Dollar General part time.

  
Amanda is now 20 years old, drives a green 1998 Ford Escort. Her big brother Merle said she had to get an American vehicle. She has gone to Pellissippi State Community College for two years now part time and worked at Dollar General for two years part time. She still doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, she is just getting her basics done at College.  
Amanda’s class was in the middle of taking an Accounting test when all hell broke loose.  
The Military started shooting at people on the streets and forced their way inside the school.  
Everybody was panicking and screaming, Amanda knew that was not the right way to handle a stressful situation like this. She had to get out of the school safely and go find her mom. She hoped her mom was ok. She also wished she had her crossbow with her, it’s not exactly school appropriate. All she had on her was her pocket knife, her pepper spray on her key chain and a cat keychain.  
While everybody was running out and creating a scene making them easy targets to get shot. Amanda stealthily snuck out of the classroom after checking to make sure a military personnel didn’t see her.  
She was almost out of the front door when a military personnel started shooting her way. It missed her by inches. She ran down another hall to get away from the military people, she was looking for another way out. Military was blocking all the exits and shooting at anybody who tried coming out. This was a nightmare.  
Amanda ran into a classroom, there were dead people in the classroom. They all were shot in the head. She shivered and hurriedly searched for a hiding place. The only place she could hide was under the teacher’s desk.  
She stayed under there for what seemed like hours. Things were quieting down. There were no more screams or shooting coming from the building.

  
Amanda stayed in her spot for another hour just in case, then she saw it was getting dark, she had to get home.  
She hurriedly but quietly got out of her hiding place. It was starting to smell with all the dead people in the room. She cautiously peaked out of the classroom door, she didn’t see anybody alive, there were a lot of dead. Amanda really wanted to vomit right now but she held it in.  
She tried calling her mom on her cell phone, she couldn’t get a signal.  
Amanda finally got out of the building and saw a horrible sight, more dead people.  
“The Military has gone crazy.” Amanda said to herself.  
She took out her keys and hurried towards her car, she checked the back seat and made sure nobody saw her before getting in and driving away.  
She saw dead people all over the streets. And then to her horror, she saw someone who was not dead, but they looked hurt. They were moaning and walking funny.

Amanda stopped the car and rolled down the passenger window. “Are you ok sir?”  
The man kept on moaning but was coming towards her.  
“Do you need help?” Amanda asked. This man smelled really bad, his skin was rotted looking.  
The man banged his hands on the car.  
“Get in I can take you to the hospital.” Amanda said.  
The man kept on moaning.  
Amanda thought that was really strange. She then saw other people rise up from the ground and they started moaning. Amanda knew something wasn’t right.  
The people who just got up were coming towards her car.  
Amanda rolled up the window and drove away.  
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. What is this world coming to?” Amanda asked herself.  
She tried the news station on her radio, she was only getting static.  
Amanda drove to her house, hoping her mother was home.  
The power was out so she couldn’t park her car in the garage.  
She hurried out of her car and unlocked the door, went inside and locked the door behind her and then dead bolted it.  
“Mom? Mom you home?” Amanda asked, “There’s something horrible going on outside.”  
She didn’t get an answer.  
“Mom?” Amanda called again.  
She checked the house, she couldn’t find her mom.  
Amanda tried to calm down, she was panicking a bit.  
“It’s ok Mandy, just calm down, everything will be fine, she just got held up at the hotel, it happens.” Amanda said to herself. “Everything will look better in the morning.”  
Amanda grabbed a flashlight and made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner and some Doritos. She made sure all of the windows were locked and the back door was locked. She drew all the curtains closed. She had her crossbow and her bug out bag close to her just in case. She fell asleep exhausted on her bed, still wearing her clothes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda goes looking for her mom. She doesn't like what she finds.

The next morning the power was still out and her mom was still not home. Amanda made herself another sandwich for breakfast and an apple.  
She waited for another hour hoping her mom would show up. She never did.  
Amanda was now getting worried, she tried calling her mom again on her cell and her work number, she couldn’t get a signal, she tried calling her brothers as well.  
Amanda couldn’t take it anymore, she had to find her mom, what if she was hurt?  
Amanda put on her locket she got for her 20th birthday from her mom. It had a picture of her little family when she won the archery competition. She put on a white T-shirt and her dark blue denim vest with four pockets on the outside. She had her mom sew pink angel wings on the back when it was bought.  
The first time Merle saw that vest he thought it was very girly.  
“Newsflash Merle, I am a girl.” Amanda remembered saying.  
She put on a pair of khaki cargo pants that turn into shorts, made by Columbia. Her brothers insisted on this brand, they were versatile and rugged. They can be long pants, capris and shorts by unzipping the leg parts. She then put on her hiking boots. She’s had three pairs since meeting her brothers. They insisted she wear hiking boots when they go camping. Her first two pairs were Walmart brand. Those didn’t last long, you get what you pay for but that was all her mom could afford. Once Amanda started making her own money she bought a pair. Keen Womens Targhee 2 They are waterproof and brown with pink and brown laces on them.  
She took out her Gerber LMF 2 survival knife which was in a sheath, out of her bug out bag and put it on her belt. She had another knife just like it in her car bug out bag, which was a UTG Tactical Messenger bag. In that bag she had about the same items as she did in her regular bug out bag, but smaller versions. She had a sawyer mini instead of a full sized water filter. She had a small pack of wet wipes and a first aid kit. For clothing she had one pair of socks and one pair of underwear and one bra, a pair of work gloves and bandana. A hairbrush, pony tail holder and a compact mirror. She had emergency ration bars for a week, granola bars and trailmix, hard candy and gum. She also had the smaller compact version of the SAS Survival Guide handbook. She had an Escape Bivvy emergency bag instead of a sleeping bag. She always kept a 6 pack of 16 ounces of water in her car for just in case.  
She took out her Pocket Hunter and packable arrows and put them in the pouch and put that on her belt as well. Just like the knife, she had another Pocket Hunter in her car bag. She rummaged through her house and found a couple granola bars and put them in one of her vest pockets. Amanda was always told to be prepared, to always have food, water, and a means for fire and a first aid kit. Until now she didn’t always follow the directions her brothers told her to follow. She always carried her pocket knife and pepper spray. She put a 16 ounce water bottle in another cargo pants pocket. She grabbed a personal pocket kit Daryl had her make.  
She thought it was stupid making this kit.  
“Why make such a small kit when you have your bug out bag?” Amanda asked before making the kit.  
“You never know when you and your bug out bags are separated.” Daryl said.  
Now she was glad she listened to her older brother. For such a little thing, it sure held a lot to fit in a pocket. An h2O water filter, a lighter and cotton for starting a fire. A small thing of dental floss, 2 tea lights, 2 packets of Pepto, 2 packets of Tylenol, 3 bandages, a small tube of Neosporin, an LED keychain light, and small hand sanitizer. She looked through her other emergency supplies her and her mom had for if the power went out. She grabbed some light sticks and put those in a pants pocket, she also grabbed a flashlight and an emergency poncho and a mylar blanket from the emergency supplies she had stored in the house. She also put on a green paracord bracelet.  
She was hoping she wasn’t going to need what she had on her person.  
She put her hair up in a ponytail and hurried to her car, she left her big bug out bag in her closet. She didn’t need it right now, she was just getting her mom. She put her crossbow in the front seat. She started the car and headed towards where her mom worked, her mom is a housekeeper at a Holiday Inn.  
She saw a bunch of people trying to get away from what she started calling Deadies. They looked like they were dead and were coming back to life. They looked horrible with blood coming out of them.  
It was chaos.  
Amanda drove for twenty minutes before she reached Holiday Inn where her mom worked, she saw her mom’s car in her reserved employee spot.  
“Ok so she’s here, good, she’s safe.” Amanda thought to herself.  
She made sure everything looked ok, there were no Deadies around. She grabbed her crossbow just in case. She headed towards the front and walked inside, there was nobody to greet her which seemed odd.  
“Hello?” Amanda asked, “Is anybody here?”  
She didn’t get an answer and tried again, “Hello? I’m looking for Janet Duggins, please is anybody there?”  
Again no answer.  
“Ok, well, I’m just going to look for her then.” Amanda said, she felt like she was just talking to herself. Maybe she was.  
She grabbed one of the key cards and keyed in the universal code so she could open any of the doors when she looked for her mom. Her mom showed her that trick a year ago when Amanda volunteered her time because the hotel was understaffed.  
When she left the lobby area, she could have gagged by the smell alone. There were dead bodies everywhere.  
Amanda hurriedly checked, none was her mom, there was still a chance her mom was alive.  
Amanda checked more of the hotel. She could hear moaning coming from some of the bedrooms. Deadies were in there.  
Amanda tried calling her mom again, maybe she could hear her mom’s phone ring. Sadly that was not the case.  
Amanda looked all over for her mom. She checked the different levels of the hotel, she was on the third level. She was about ready to give up when a bunch of employees came out of a room that said employees only. Janet Duggins was in front, she was shuffling her feet like the rest of the employees were. To Amanda’s horror, they were all Deadies… Janet, her mom was a Deadie.  
The Deadies saw Amanda and they were not slow anymore, they started running towards her.  
Amanda couldn’t take on all of the Deadies, there was at least ten of them. At that moment she wished her mom allowed her to have a gun.  
Amanda started running away from the Deadies and unlocked one of the bedroom doors and hurried inside. All of the Deadies on the other side of the door were banging on the door trying to get in.  
Amanda dead bolted the door and latched it. She started breathing hard and tried to keep her tears at bay. It didn’t work, she ran to the bed and started sobbing into a pillow. Her mother was a Deadie.  
She didn’t get to cry for long. She started hearing a moaning and a shuffling noise, there was a Deadie in the room with her. It saw her and was coming towards her.  
Amanda gasped, aimed her crossbow at the heart and shot the Deadie in the heart thinking it will die.  
It did not, it was like it didn’t even feel the bow in it’s chest.  
Amanda dodged away from the Deadie and tried to find a window of time to load her crossbow again.  
There was no time. The Deadie lunged at Amanda, it looked like it wanted to bite her. Amanda blocked the attack with her crossbow. That gave her time to get her knife out and stab the Deadie in the head  
Amanda jumped in surprise, she has never killed anybody before. She was shocked it was so easy to stab the Deadie.  
The Deadie died on impact.  
Amanda just stood there shocked for a few minutes. Trying to digest what just happened. She stayed in that room for a few hours, mostly just looking at the Deadie and feeling numb and lost in thought, the other Deadies were still trying to get in but it wasn’t happening.  
Finally after a while, the smell was getting to her. She knew what she had to do, she had to find Merle and Daryl, she’d be safer with them. They could help her keep her mind off… No, she won’t think about that, not right now, she had to get safe.  
She stood up and looked at the dead Deadie. She needed her arrow back. She really didn’t want to touch the deadie again.  
She grabbed a couple towels and used them to help pull out the arrow. She then cleaned off her knife and arrow with soap and water.  
Amanda could hear the Deadies still at the door. She didn’t want to think that her mom was one of them. Right now she had to think of a way to escape this room. Her only option was the window. She was three stories up. Roughly Twelve feet per story. She was 36 feet up in the air. She knew she didn’t have enough paracord on her bracelet for climbing down. Even if she did, it wasn’t safe.  
She looked at her other option, knotting sheets together and climbing down those. That wasn’t safe either.  
It wasn’t safe to stay in this room either.  
Amanda made up her mind, she was going to do something crazy and if Merle or Daryl ever found out what she did they would freak.  
Amanda unraveled her paracord bracelet. She had maybe 20 feet of paracord. She tied one end of the paracord between the slots of the furnace by the window using a Prussic knot. She tested it out by pulling on it. It was tight. Next she took out her pocket knife and headed into the bathroom. There was blood in the bathroom from the man that turned into a Deadie.  
She took off the shower rod and threaded the curtain off of it.  
She used the cloth part of the curtain and cut strands of it leaving the metal holes alone.  
She took one strand and took the other end of her paracord and made another Prussic knot by tying it through the metal ring on the curtain strand. That would give her another 5 feet. Now this part scared her, she was going to tie the end of the one curtain strand to another curtain strand. The tricky part is making the knot strong enough to hold her weight.  
Finally she had enough rope to get her down to the ground.  
She opened up the window and dropped her rope down, it was a long way down. What if her rope didn’t hold?  
She threw the blankets from the bed and the pillows onto the ground. If she fell, she would have cushion to land on.  
She looked around at what she could use to not get rope burn, she didn’t bring any gloves not thinking about having to climb down a makeshift rope.  
She looked around the room and in drawers. She found a pair of socks in one of the drawers.  
She put them on her hands and pulled them to her wrists.  
She slung her crossbow on her back and she started to climb down the rope.  
By the time she got to the second curtain. She saw Deadies coming out of the building and they saw her, she was glad none of them was her mom, but scared because they were deadies.  
Amanda glanced down to see how far she was. She was about ten feet from the ground and she had padding. Without thinking about it, she jumped from her rope and landed in the pile of blankets and pillows. She was glad she did that.  
The Deadies were gaining on her. She knew she couldn’t take them alone. There were about twenty. She’d be killed for sure. She ran towards her car, a deadie came between her and her vehicle. She shot it with her crossbow and pulled the arrow out while still running. She unlocked her door by the push of the button on her keys and got in just in time. Her car was swarming with Deadies, they couldn’t get in though, they kept banging on the door.  
Amanda didn’t want to do what she had to do, she had to get out of there. She started her car up and ran over some deadies while trying to get out of the parking lot.  
Two Deadies were on her car when she was trying to get to the road. She put her seatbelt on, sped up real fast and then braked hard which made the Deadies go flying and Amanda was glad she had her seat belt on. After that fiasco, she drove back to her house. She needed to get more supplies and she was going to get out of there.  
When she pulled up to her house, the window was broken and the door was wide open, somebody was in her house or has been in her house.  
She looked around before getting out of her car. She didn’t see anybody, Deadie or otherwise. She grabbed her crossbow and loaded it. She grabbed her Get Home Bug out Bag and put it around her across her body. She cautiously walked inside, everything was a mess, things were stolen, graffiti was on the walls. She checked the kitchen, which was a mess too. All the food was gone from the cupboards and refrigerator.  
She didn’t see anybody. She quietly moved upstairs and checked the bathroom and her mom’s room. Her mom’s jewelry was gone.  
Amanda quietly walked towards her bedroom, everything was a mess in here too. Clothes were missing, blankets were gone. Her bed was ripped up.  
“Whoever came in here was probably looking for drugs.” Amanda thought to herself. She remembered Merle saying the best place to find drugs were in mattresses.  
What annoyed her the most about this situation was that whoever was in here took Amanda’s Bug Out Bag.  
“Damn it.” Amanda swore. Right now she was glad she had her Bug out Bag for her car and that she took her Pocket Hunter and her Survival Knife out of her Bug Out Bag.  
She looked around her house and saw that the rest of the camp and survival supplies that she and her mom owned were gone. So were kitchen knives. They went through the medicine cabinet as well.  
Amanda sighed, she couldn’t stay here, she had to leave. She needed to get to her brothers and quick. Amanda went through her house. Couldn’t find any food in the kitchen cupboards. They didn’t have many cupboards anyway. But she and her mom have an ottoman that has storage inside. They wanted more food storage and this was a great way and the food was concealed. Nobody thought to look in there. Amanda opened up the ottoman and found 12 packs of beef ramen noodles, 12 packs of chicken ramen noodles, 12 cans of 12 oz chicken. A box of fruit roll ups and a pack of mini bags of M&Ms with peanuts.  
She took the packs of ramen out of the box and put them in her bug out bag, she put the 12 cans of chicken in her bag and took the fruit roll ups out of the box and put them in her bag. She put the whole pack of mini bags of M&Ms in her bag.  
She looked around at what else she could use that maybe looters have missed.  
She found a box of tampons, there were many uses for tampons besides the obvious reason, she found what was left of the toilet paper on the roll, the looters took the other stuff. She also found napkins in the napkin holder.  
That was about all she could find that would be of any use. She searched the house again and couldn’t find anything. She looked through her drawers and her mom’s drawers, the looters took clothes, blankets, towels, practically everything that would be useful. She found one clean unused garbage bag and put that in her pack. She then headed out the door and hurried to her car. She drove away without looking back.


	3. Chapter 3

Amanda drove away from the town and saw people becoming victims of the Deadies. She learned the Deadies liked to bite and a Deadie bite was fatal. She drove for about two hours away from Knoxville TN. She had to go to Auburn to meet up with her brothers. She had to take different roads, everybody tried the interstate and it was backed up with Deadies and just dead. She ended up in Chatsworth, GA. She was still about 2 and a half hours away from her brothers. She needed to find a gas station or a car. She needed gas.  
She drove for a bit and then spotted a handful of vehicles at a Walmart. She looked around and didn’t see anybody. She parked her car. Put her bag around her and took out her two gallon gas can and siphon. She hurried to another vehicle and looked to see if anybody was in the car, she didn’t want to steal someone’s fuel if they were inside. What she saw made her gasp, there was a family of Deadies. Two boys who looked to be 5 or 6 and 9 or 10, a father and a mother.  
Amanda had her crossbow ready just in case. She was glad she didn’t have to push a button to open the gas door.  
While she was putting gas in her car. She heard gun shots coming from inside the Walmart. She got about five gallons out of the car and into her car.  
She saw two figures running out of Walmart. One looked like a woman, the other looked like a little girl. Both of them had backpacks and guns and were shooting at Deadies.  
Amanda hurriedly got into her car and drove towards them. She put herself between the woman and the Deadies.  
“Get in.” Amanda said.  
The two didn’t hesitate, they got in the back seat and Amanda hurried out of the Walmart parking lot.  
The two were breathing hard.  
“Thank you.” The woman said.  
“You saved our lives.” The girl said.  
“I’m Linda, this is my daughter Ashley.” The woman introduced herself.  
“I’m Amanda. You two are the first non deadie I’ve run into since this whole thing started.” Amanda said.  
“Deadie?” Ashely asked.  
“That’s what I call those things.” Amanda said, “So, are you two alone?”  
Linda nodded, “This thing started yesterday. There was a shooting at Ashely’s school. The only reason why she isn’t dead is because I took her out to lunch.”  
“Where are we going?” Ashely asked.  
“Where do you two want to go?” Amanda asked.  
“We have family in Holly Springs, we were on our way there. Our car was stolen and house was broken into. We were just trying to get some supplies for the journey.” Linda said.  
“That’s horrible. My house was broken into as well. They took my bug out bag. All I have is what is in my purse. I was heading to Walmart to get some supplies too until I heard you two shooting.” Amanda said.  
“Looks like you have a crossbow and arrows.” Ashely said.  
Amanda nodded, “I’m on an archery team, I shoot the crossbow, I’ve won a couple trophies. I had this in my car when everything happened.”  
“Ashley just received her firearm license last week.” Linda said.  
“That’s good. Until the government figures out how to fix what is going on. Knowing how to shoot a gun will keep you alive.” Amanda said.  
Amanda drove for 45 minutes and Ashely said she needed to use the restroom.  
Amanda pulled into a convenience store and they looked around, there were no Deadies or people around.  
Amanda took out her window breaker from her glove compartment and grabbed her crossbow just in case. They hurried towards the door and Amanda broke the glass with her window breaker.  
They stepped over the glass and all used the restroom after making sure nobody dead or alive was in the building.  
Once Amanda was out of the bathroom she looked around. Linda and Ashely were not in the building. She looked around and saw that the car was gone. She was trying to help out two people and they stole her car. It looked like they took supplies with them in a hurry as well.  
Amanda was having a very bad day. She needed to grab more supplies as well. Now all she had was what she had on her, she was glad she had her bug out bag on her. She was going to miss her little car, she’s had it for four years.  
She found a box of plastic baggies, she used those baggies and put food in them, she had one baggie with beef jerky, one baggie had protein bars, one had trailmix and nuts she grabbed more candy more fruit roll ups and fruit by the foot. She grabbed more hard candy like hard butterscotch. She grabbed more gum as well. She also grabbed the peppermints which have a lot of benefits. She also found packets of green tea that she put in a baggie, green tea has antioxidants. She found liquid water enhancer with energy, she took that as well. She had a spot for water on her bag where she could put a 32 oz bottle of water in, she did that. She hurried down the rows and took what she thought could be useful. She went behind the counter and found matches which she put in a baggie and a handful of paper clips. She found 3 water bottle carabineer holders with the store brand name on them. She clipped those to her bag and put three 20 oz water bottles on her bag. She found the medicine row and stocked up on lip balm, Tylenol, IB Profen, Neosporin, antacids, Vitamin C drops, Vaseline, cotton swabs, cotton balls, hand sanitizer, more tampons and pads, she found packages of Kleenex and wet wipes and bigger versions of Kleenex, she took the Kleenex out of their boxes and stuffed Kleenex in baggies. She found garbage bags and grabbed a handful of them. She grabbed more toothpaste and another toothbrush, she found dental floss and took all of that. Dental floss has many uses. She found flash light key chains and hooked them onto her bag. She also found bug spray and a few survival bracelets with the store’s name on them. They were small, maybe had 10 feet of rope on them. She grabbed those too and put them on her wrist. There were different colored ones, 2 black, 2 orange, 1 red, and 1 yellow. She put the two black ones on her wrist, she put the other ones in her bag.  
She grabbed all she could carry. Her vest was full, her pockets were full and her bag was full.  
It was getting late, Amanda needed to find a place to stay the night, she couldn’t stay in this store, the door was broken.  
Amanda grabbed a few more food items and a Doctor Pepper bottle to eat and drink while she was walking, she hasn’t eaten anything since breakfast that morning. She grabbed some beef sticks and a bag of chips and a snickers bar.  
She hurried out of the building and started walking towards Auburn.  
Once the sun was setting, Amanda had to find a place to stay the night, she saw trees and not a whole lot of anything else.  
She was going to have to sleep in a tree tonight, very uncomfortable but safer then the ground.  
She walked into the woodsy area for a bit before she found a tree she liked. She made sure her pockets in her pants were all zipped so nothing would fall out, she made sure her vest pockets were secure. She took her green waterproof reusable poncho out of her bag and put it on, that was going to be her shelter for the night. She took a garbage bag and made a little poncho for her crossbow as well. She climbed up and slung her crossbow on a limb next to her where it would be safe, she sat down on a tree branch and unraveled one of the bracelets. She used the rope to tie herself to the tree so she doesn’t fall. She then took out the bandana and folded it a few times to make a pillow for her head which she stuffed in the hood of the poncho and laid back, she still had her bug out bag on her, she was not going to let that go.  
Amanda didn’t get much sleep that night, she heard moaning and shuffling in the woods. Her heart was pounding fast. First it was just one Deadie she heard, and then it sounded like more Deadies joined the one. It sounded like they were getting closer to her. Amanda tried being as quiet as she possibly could. She was surprised nobody heard her heart beating out of her chest.  
She waited and listened, the Deadies never saw her, they walked right by her.  
She might have dozed off because the next thing she knew, it was early morning, she didn’t know what time it was since she didn’t have a watch. But what really irritated her though, it was raining. Thank goodness she was wearing a poncho.  
She couldn’t hear any Deadies or people. She put the bandana back in her bag, untied herself from the tree and straddled the tree, she weaved the paracord bracelet back together, it took her about fifteen minutes. She put it back on her wrist, grabbed her crossbow with the garbage bag still on it, she made a hole in the bag and got the sling out so she could sling it on her back, she then climbed down the tree. At that moment she was glad her shoes were waterproof.  
She looked at the tracks the Deadies made, they looked like they were a few hours old. She hoped she was safe for now.  
While it was raining, Amanda walked towards Auburn, when it stopped raining, she ran for a while, the sooner she got to her brothers, the better. She shook the water off of her poncho and garbage bag and put the items back in her pack.  
She spotted some vehicles on the road. She heard Deadies coming before she saw them. She hid under one of the cars and had her knife out just in case.  
There were about twenty Deadies that went past her and into the woods.  
She waited for five minutes just in case before getting out from underneath the car.  
She looked around and spotted two Deadies that saw her. They were coming towards her, they were making that growling noise.  
Amanda hurriedly took the garbage bag off of her crossbow, loaded her crossbow up and shot one Deadie in the head, she didn’t have time to reload her crossbow, she had to use it to block the Deadie from coming at her face. She stabbed the Deadie with her knife in the temple.  
Once those two were dead, she retrieved her arrow, cleaned it off on the Deadie’s shirt, did the same with her knife. She then rubbed a bit of hand sanitizer on both her arrow and knife to disinfect them.  
She walked some more, she had to kill three more Deadies on her walk. She ate a granola bar and took one swig of water.  
She kept on walking and there were more cars and more Deadies. She hid from the Deadies again.  
When she got out from her hiding place. A teenaged girl walked out of a vehicle.  
Amanda aimed her crossbow at the girl thinking she was a Deadie.  
The girl jumped and put her arms up in a surrender sign. “Don’t shoot. I’m not one of those things.”  
Amanda put her crossbow down.  
“I saw you hiding from those things. I haven’t seen any people not scary looking for days.” The girl said. “My name is Christie.”  
“I’m Amanda.” Amanda said.  
“Where are you going?” Christie asked.  
“To find my brothers. Where are you going?” Amanda asked.  
Christie shrugged, “I don’t know. I was with my mom and dad when this happened. We were getting out of Cumming. There are those… things everywhere. Military started shooting, the cars were backed up. Dad got out of the car to see what was taking so long for people to drive away. He was killed by one of those things. Somebody shot the thing that killed him. My mom got out of the car. Somebody accidently shot her when they were going after a… thing.”  
Christie had tears in her eyes talking about this.  
“I was too scared to leave the car. Everybody was either dead, or went away. I should have gone with somebody. But… I was scared. I don’t know what to do.” Christie cried.  
Amanda sighed, “How old are you?”  
“Fifteen.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded, “Ok, so… does this car work?”  
Christie shook her head no. “I tried to get it to work.”  
Amanda sighed, “Well we cannot stay here forever. We will stay here tonight, lock the doors. Tomorrow we will leave.”  
“Where?” Christie asked.  
“Where my brother’s live, in Auburn.” Amanda said.  
“But that’s an hour away from here.” Christie said.  
Amanda sighed, “It’s a lot further than that. We are walking and with Deadies out, it takes longer.”  
“Deadies?” Christie asked.  
“It’s what I call the things.” Amanda said.  
“Oh.” Christie said.  
“So, first thing first, do you have a backpack or something?” Amanda asked.  
Christie nodded and took out her backpack. It was a High Sierra, it was black, purple and blue tie-dye  
“This is for school.” Christie said, “Mom thought it would be a good idea if I still did my homework.”  
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Take all of your school things out of your backpack. What did you pack your clothes in?”  
“A suitcase in the trunk.” Christie said.  
Amanda went to the trunk and took out all three suitcases.  
“Those two are my parents'.” Christie said.  
“Kind of figured.” Amanda said.  
She unzipped the suitcases and looked inside. She found a lot of jeans in Christie's suitcase which wouldn’t work. She found a pair of thin pants that looked like cargo pants that were versatile in the mother's suitcase.  
“Here put these on.” Amanda said.  
“What’s wrong with my jeans?” Christie asked taking the cargo pants, “These are my moms.”  
“These will dry faster and they have extra pockets, your jeans will be a hindrance in the long run.” Amanda said.  
“How do you know?” Christie asked.  
“Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.” Amanda said.  
“But these are miss me jeans.” Christie said.  
“Doesn’t matter, put those on.” Amanda said.  
“I don’t want to.” Christie said.  
“Christie I just met you and I can already tell you are a brat and an only child. I am here and I chose to help save your life, and in order for me to do that, you must do what I say. I am older than you, I know what I’m talking about. Before all of this started, my life consisted of learning I have two older brothers when I was thirteen, they taught me how to shoot and fight, I have been on an archery team, going to my brothers and camping in the woods for three months. I have learned about survival, and if you want to survive then you need to listen to me, now put those pants on.” Amanda snapped.  
She turned her head and let Christie put the pants on.  
“I look ridiculous.” Christie said.  
“The only people who will see you are Deadies and me.” Amanda said.  
Christie sighed.  
Amanda looked through the suitcases again and had Christie put underwear, a bra, socks, a clean shirt and a purple windbreaker jacket in her bag. She also put a tooth brush and tooth paste, deodorant, a hair brush and ponytail holder in there. She saw flipflops on Christie’s feet and was very happy when she saw tennis shoes in the suitcase.  
“Put the tennis shoes on.” Amanda said.  
Christie did as she was told after putting on a pair of socks.  
Also in the suitcases were a couple of razors, Amanda grabbed those and put them in Christie’s pack. There was also an inflatable neck pillow. Amanda took the air out of that and put that in Christie’s pack.  
Christie’s mom also had a khaki colored nylon vest with two pockets.  
“Here, put this on.” Amanda said.  
Christie did as she was told.  
Amanda also found a pretty silk looking shawl in the suitcase which she had Christie put in her bag.  
The only thing useful she found in the dad’s suitcase was a digital watch which she put on her wrist. and a blue windbreaker jacket.  
“Ok, can you think of anything else?” Amanda asked.  
Christie nodded and grabbed a tiny bag out of her suitcase, inside was a picture of her family, she also grabbed a necklace with a white crystal.  
“My dad gave me this necklace when he came back from a trip to Europe.” Christie said.  
“That’s sweet.” Amanda said with a smile.  
“So where are your parents?” Christie asked, “Did they die too?”  
Amanda nodded, “My dad died before I met him, he didn’t want me. My mom, my mom was great. I was her only child, she would have given me anything I wanted if she could. She let me spend the summers with my brothers. She paid for my car. She was always there for me, when my brother’s would irritate me… they did that a lot, she always listened. Whenever I had boy issues, she always listened… I miss her, she turned into a Deadie.”  
“I’m sorry.” Christie said.  
Amanda sighed and wiped away the tears that were falling. “Anyway… can’t dwell on that right now. If Merle saw me right now he’d say crying is for sissies.” Amanda chuckled, “So… Do you have any food?”  
Christie nodded, “I have half a loaf of bread, 3 apples, creamy peanut butter and grape jelly, sun chips, baked lays, cliff bars, Nature Valley Granola bars, peanut butter crackers, trailmix, rice cakes, special k meal and snack bars, special k cereal left… my mom was on a diet, she wanted to lose five pounds before her cruise trip to the Bahamas.”  
Amanda chuckled at that. “Ok, put everything but the bread, one apple, peanut butter and jelly in your bag.”  
Christie did as she was told.  
“What about water?” Amanda asked.  
“I have three 20 oz bottles of water left, three 20 oz cokes, and three 32 oz fruit punch Gatorades.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded, “Ok, put all of that in your bag. We will eat dinner, share my bottle of water and go to bed, we have a long day tomorrow.”  
They both ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner and Amanda used her pocket knife and cut one of the apples in slices and they had peanut butter apples for dessert. Christie put everything back in her bag when dinner was over.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Girls made it to Auburn and to Merle and Daryl's house. They have to deal with unwelcome visitors.

The two girls spent the next three days dodging Deadies, sleeping in vehicles, and telling stories about their lives. They ate the rest of the bread, and apples, they were now putting peanut butter and jelly on the rice cakes. Finally they made it to Auburn. There were Deadies here too.  
“There are Deadies here too, what if your brother’s are Deadies?” Christie asked.  
Amanda shook her head no, “I won’t believe it, they are survivalists.”  
Amanda had to kill three Deadies and they dodged a lot more before they made it to the house Daryl and Merle rented. She saw all the curtains were closed.  
Amanda took out her key from her keychain and unlocked the door.  
“Merle? Daryl?” Amanda called.  
They didn’t hear anybody.  
They went inside and Amanda locked the door.  
Amanda checked the rooms and supplies was gone. She checked the garage and the truck and motorcycle were gone.  
“Damn it.” Amanda cussed.  
“Now what?” Christie asked, she looked scared.  
Amanda sighed, she was responsible for this kid now. She was hoping she’d find her brothers, she didn’t really have a plan after that.  
“Come on.” Amanda said, “Follow me.”  
Christie followed Amanda into her bedroom.  
“This is my bedroom when we are not camping. Merle taught me how to fight. I ended up getting a lot of bruises in the process so my mom and Daryl at the same time bought me a pair of these, I have two pair and can only use one at a time.” Amanda said.  
“What are they?” Christie asked.  
“Proforce forearm guards and Proforce shin guards” Amanda said and she put them on her arms and took her shoes off and put the shin guards on her legs.  
“What are they for?” Christie asked.  
“Protection from the Deadies.” Amanda said. “We saw the Deadies like to bite, even when they are cut in half. They will try to go for our legs, the shin guards will help so they don’t pierce us, they like to go for our arms, the forearm guards will help from piercing our arms.”  
Christie put them on and Amanda helped put on the shin guards.  
“They feel a little weird.” Christie said.  
“You’ll get used to it.” Amanda said.  
Amanda and Christie began looking around, Amanda for anything they can use to defend themselves, or to use. Christie because she was exploring the house.  
Amanda couldn’t find any guns or ammo in the house. Daryl and Merle must have taken it all.  
“My brothers took all the ammo and guns.” Amanda said.  
“Guns? You know how to shoot guns?” Christie asked.  
Amanda nodded. “The only thing they left that would do us any good, are my clothes. I always keep three outfits here when I’m back at my moms, never know when I want to come over for a visit and end up spending the night. We can change clothes. We should see if the water is working and we can take showers. They left a bar of soap in the bathroom along with a couple towels.  
Christie smiled at that, “A shower sounds wonderful.”  
“And we can wash our clothes in the sink and they can dry overnight.” Amanda said.  
Christie liked that idea.  
“You can go first, please don’t take too long.” Amanda said.  
“I can take a shower in ten minutes.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded.  
Christie took off the proforce guards and hurried to take a shower. Amanda laid out clean clothes for her to change into when she was done.  
True to her word, Christie was done in 10 minutes.  
“There’s clothes on the bed for you.” Amanda said when Christie came out in a towel.  
Christie smiled her thanks and went into the bedroom.  
Amanda undressed and put her pocket knife and survival knife and Pocket Hunter on the counter and took her own shower, it felt so good getting all the crap out of her hair.  
Amanda stepped out of the shower, dried off and put on her underwear and pants when she heard Christie scream.  
Amanda grabbed her Gerber LMF 2 and quietly stepped out of the bathroom, the men were not paying attention to her, they didn’t know she was there. They were saying provocative things to Christie. One had her by the shoulders and was fondling her breasts. Christie had tears in her eyes. The other was laughing and getting Christie’s pants off.  
Christie was kicking and screaming.  
The man who took her pants off slapped her in the face. “None of that.”  
“We don’t want to mess up your pretty face, but cause any trouble before we are finished and we will.” The man who was fondling her said.  
The two didn’t look like they had any guns on them, just knives and were burly looking.  
She couldn’t get to her crossbow that was in the bedroom. But she had her Pocket Hunter and arrows, She didn’t have time to put her arrows together, she took the sharp pointy parts of the arrow. Put two in her pocket and had one loaded.  
The first thing she did was aim her arrow at the man who had the knife to Christie’s face. She aimed at the man’s hand, surely an arrow through his hand will make him drop the knife.  
She aimed her Pocket Hunter and let the arrow fly.  
The man screamed in pain, Amanda hit her target.  
Doing that distracted the man who was going to rape Christie.  
“Another bitch to play with.” The man said with an evil smile.  
“Look what that cunt did to me.” The other man said angry.  
“We’ll make them both pay.” The man said. He was ignoring Christie for the moment, he was distracted by a topless Amanda.  
That gave Christie the chance to kick the man where it counted and to grab the knife the other man dropped.  
The man doubled over in pain. Amanda used that opportunity to kick the guy in the head.  
The man with the arrow tried fighting the girls, Christie sliced the man’s arm. The man howled in pain again.  
Christie twisted the arrow that was still stuck in the man’s hand which made him howl some more. The man lunged at Christie, Christie screamed.  
Amanda shot another arrow at the man, she had bad aim and she missed.  
Christie had the knife in front of her pointing at the man, when the man lunged, he landed on the knife, the knife was in his stomach.  
Christie screamed again.  
The man gasped and was wide eyed.  
Christie pushed him off of her and he landed on the floor with a thump.  
“You two messed with the wrong girls.” Amanda said and kicked the man who was going to rape Christie and got him on the floor, she stomped on his face, it would have hurt more if she were wearing her shoes. “Lord forgive me for doing this.”  
She used her knife and stabbed the man in the head, killing him instantly.  
The other man was on the floor, he was still alive but dying slowly.  
Amanda looked at the man, a coward more like, picking on a defenseless fifteen year old girl. She pulled out her arrow from the man’s hand, the man was spitting up blood. She grabbed the knife and pulled it out of his stomach.  
Christie had tears running down her face and she looked really pale.  
“Christie close your eyes if you don’t want to see this.” Amanda said.  
Christie shook her head no, “That bastard, he…” She didn’t finish.  
Amanda nodded and stabbed the man in the head with her knife killing him. She wiped the arrows and knives off on the men’s clothes and then disinfected them with hand sanitizer.  
Amanda was disgusted that this happened in her bedroom. She was glad Christie was ok. She walked back in the bathroom, washed off the blood and put her bra and shirt on.  
“Now what?” Christie asked, “They got in, you had the door locked.”  
Amanda walked towards the door and looked at it. “They picked the lock, the door isn’t broken.”  
“I don’t want to stay here with them in here, what if they turn into Deadies?” Christie said.  
“They won’t, I stabbed them in the head. That kills them.” Amanda said. “We’ll go sleep in Daryl’s room tonight and then leave early tomorrow, maybe Merle and Daryl are at Cabot Ridge.”  
“What’s that?” Christie asked.  
“It’s where we go hunting.” Amanda said. “It’s an hour away by car. Called Cabot Ridge. We should get there in a day or two.  
“What if somebody else picks the lock?” Christie asked.  
Amanda sighed, and grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and carried it into the living room and wedged the chair under the doorknob. “There, now nobody can get in.”  
“Are you sure?” Christie asked.  
Amanda nodded.  
Actually she wasn’t going to tell Christie it wasn’t totally foolproof, but if it calmed Christie down, she’d do anything to make Christie feel safe.  
They took their dirty clothes and filled up the sink with water. It was cold at that time, but at least their clothes would be somewhat clean. They used the bar of soap to clean them with. They then put their clothes on the kitchen chairs to dry. They shared a bottle of coke. Christie needed a pick-me-up from her experience. After they had their coke they headed towards Daryl’s bedroom to sleep. It was the less disturbing room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls are on their way to Cabot Ridge. They stop at a house for the night.

The next morning they had rice cakes with peanut butter and jelly on them, split a granola bar package and shared a bottle of water. They were getting ready to leave, but before they did, they made sure there was nothing in the house that would come in handy. They checked all the cupboards. What they found made Amanda very happy, they found a coffee filter in one of the cupboards and found pots and pans. Amanda filled up one of the big pots with water, put it on the stove. Took one of the lighters and lit the stove.  
“What are you doing?” Christie asked.  
“We need water, and I do not trust any water now without filtering and boiling it first.” Amanda explained.  
That made sense to Christie, she didn’t want to drink water that the Deadies might have stepped in.  
“So…” Christie started.  
“This is a gas stove, the electricity is out, but I can still use the gas stove just by lighting the burner.” Amanda said, “Works very well when the power is out.”  
They had enough water to fill up their two empty 32 oz bottles, their five empty 20 oz bottles. And their one 16 oz bottle. All the other bottles still had water, Gatorade or soda.  
They looked at more of the pots and pans, hoping they could find a small enough one to take with them.  
Everything was too big.  
“Merle and Daryl will be at Cabot Ridge, they will have the camp things.” Amanda said.  
Once they had everything packed up, they put their Proforce arm guards and shin guards on. Amanda took the knife the man was stabbed with and looked at it, it was a Gerber Prodigy survival knife.  
“Well, at least the man had good taste, Gerber is the brand I have too.” Amanda said.  
She walked into the bedroom with the dead men and it was already starting to smell in there. She found the sheath that the knife went into and she took it. “They don’t need it where they are at.”  
She also found the knife the other man had, his was a Winchester Bowie, not her favorite but a knife is a knife. She took that and the sheath as well. She checked them for anything else that would be useful and found a Gerber folding knife. She put that in her vest pocket. She found a leatherman folding knife in the other man’s pocket and a leatherman multitool, she took those too. She also found pocket survival kits that they made themselves, like the one that she made. They had a regular bic lighter, a tube of cotton, a tube of petroleum jelly, five packets of IB profen, five packets of antacid tablets, a wire saw, a piece of foil, dental floss a small tube of Neosporin and five bandages. The cases were just like hers. Cheap but durable waterproof cases her brothers could put their packs of cigs in. one had a tiny pen on a keychain.  
Amanda added a keychain flashlight to the kits, small tubes of hand sanitizer, five packets of Tylenol and a pack of matches. She liked the antacid idea and she added packets to her own personal kit and dental floss and the keychain pen.  
She couldn’t find anything else useful on the men. She looked around her bedroom and in drawers, there wasn’t anything useful in here either.  
She shut her bedroom door.  
“Why were you in there?” Christie asked.  
“They had useful items.” Amanda said and produced a personal kit.  
“What’s that?” Christie asked.  
“This is going to be with you at all times, it will go in either your pants pocket or your clothes or vest pocket. This is a personal survival kit if at any time you are away from your bag. This will help you survive.” Amanda said.  
“I don’t want anything of theirs.” Amanda said.  
“It’s not theirs anymore, it’s yours.” Amanda said. “Along with these knives.”  
She gave Christie the Leatherman folding knife and the Winchester Bowie.  
Christie gasped, “But I killed him with this.”  
“You stabbed him, and it wasn’t this one, you stabbed him with this one.” Amanda said and showed her the Gerber knife, “But it doesn’t make a difference, you might have to stab some more. You need a weapon. I can’t always protect you, I missed him when I shot the arrow the second time. If you didn’t have a knife, who knew what would have happened.” Amanda said  
Christie sighed and nodded, took the knife and sheath and put it on her belt. She was just glad the knife she was given wasn’t the one she stabbed a man with.  
She was also given the Leatherman pocket knife and Leatherman Multi tool, which she put in her vest pocket.  
“Oh and here.” Amanda said, she gave Amanda a red survival bracelet.  
“What’s this for?” Christie asked.  
“It’s a survival bracelet. If you ever need to use it, just pull at this and then you just unravel it.” Amanda said.  
“Does it really work? For survival?” Christie asked.  
“I climbed down a paracord to get out of a building, I don’t recommend that, but that worked, I tied myself up in a tree and slept in a tree, Deadies walked under me, didn’t see me. Paracord has many uses.” Amanda said.  
“Oh, well, thank you.” Christie said with a smile and she clipped it to her wrist.  
They grabbed their bags. Amanda made sure she had all her weapons in place, she had her knife and pocket knives, she had her Pocket Hunter and arrows, she had her crossbow in front of her and bug out bag on her, she was set. Christie had her bug out bag on her back and knife sheathed on her belt, she was set.  
At a last thought, Amanda walked towards the trashcan and sifted through the trash, it looked pretty bare except for some ripped up junk mail.  
Amanda grabbed the biggest piece of ripped up mail she could find. Took out the little pen from her kit and wrote a note to Merle and Daryl saying what the date was, she made it here safely. She was going to the cabin.  
Once she finished, she anchored the message down with a fridge magnet and left it on the fridge. She took the rest of the junk mail and stuffed it in her pack, it would be of use for a fire. Christie was waiting and they walked out the door. Just out of habit, Amanda locked the door.  
They made it out of Auburn alright. Amanda just had to kill three Deadies.  
They traveled four miles. It took them all day. They had to dodge a hoard of Deadies. They hid from a gang of bikers, they were getting tired. Christie only had tennis shoes and she wasn’t used to all this walking. Her feet were hurting. They arrived at a town that looked deserted. Every town looked deserted these days. They were on their guard. They had to find a place to rest. Before they walked into the residential area, Christie saw a retail store. She needed new shoes, her feet were killing her.  
“Can we go in there?” Christie asked.  
The store looked looted.  
“We might not find what you need, people broke into the store.” Amanda said.  
“Can we check?” Christie asked. “I really need new shoes.”  
“That might be a hindrance, new shoes can give you blisters.” Amanda said.  
“Not if I break them in.” Christie said.  
Amanda couldn’t argue with that logic, “Ok, we will find you some hiking shoes. They take less time breaking in then boots. But we need to be careful, we don’t know what might be lurking in the store.”  
Christie nodded and took out her knife for protection.  
They stepped over the glass that was broken for looters to get inside, the store was a mess. There was debris everywhere.  
Christie and Amanda both turned on flashlights and stepped over debris.  
They looked around, they had to duck under things and climb over things, after about ten minutes a Deadie appeared, it didn’t see them, it was too busy eating something.  
Amanda looked around, she didn’t see any more deadies, she aimed her crossbow at the head of this deadie and killed it. She walked towards it and retrieved her arrow. She wrinkled her nose at what the deadie was eating.  
The two kept on walking. Finally they found the shoes.  
“What’s your size shoe?” Amanda asked.  
“Size 7 and a half.” Christie said.  
Amanda looked through the shoes that she thought would be good. There wasn’t much to choose from. Everything was out of order and on the floor, she had to go through the boxes manually to see what was inside them. The first pair of shoes that she thought would be good was the Pacific Trail Multi Terrain Hiking shoes in Christie’s size. Christie didn’t have time to try them on. Five more deadies appeared. Two were going after Christie, three were going after Amanda. Christie looked very scared.  
“Your knife, get your knife up.” Amanda said. “Back to the wall so they can’t come from behind you.”  
Christie did as she was told.  
Amanda shot one Deadie in the head with her crossbow. She had to block an attack with the box she was holding and stabbed the Deadie in the head.  
Christie screamed.  
The deadie lunged for Christie, Christie blocked her face with her arm, the proforce was working.  
“Christie use your knife.” Amanda said  
Christie closed her eyes and stabbed the Deadie in the eye and pulled out the knife, the Deadie was dead.  
The other Deadie was still going after Christie.  
Amanda grabbed a piece of broken plywood and wacked the deadie until it died who was getting close to her and Christie. That gave Amanda a moment to load her crossbow up again and shoot at the last Deadie, she missed.  
The deadie lunged at the girls, Amanda swung the plywood at the last deadie and kept on swinging until the head was a bloody mess.  
Both girls were breathing hard, “Are you ok?” Amanda asked.  
Christie nodded.  
“How’s your arm? Did it bite you?” Amanda asked  
Christie shook her head no. “Can we get out of here now?”  
Amanda nodded, she pulled out the arrow from the one deadie’s head and then went searching for her other.  
“Don’t leave me behind.” Christie said.  
“I’m not, come on.” Amanda said, “I have to find my arrow.”  
She found her arrow deep inside the store. She picked it up and put it back on her quiver. She looked around, they were in the outdoors department. She didn’t move for a moment.  
“Come on Amanda, lets get out of here.” Christie said.  
“In a moment.” Amanda said.  
She began to look around, everything was a mess in here as well.  
Christie used this time to change out her shoes. She needed to break her new shoes in. They fit her perfectly.  
Amanda saw all the lanterns and flashlights were gone, all of the backpacks and camp stoves and propane was gone, all of the sleeping bags and tents, all of the ponchos and lighters and food was gone. She found a couple packs of hand warmers, they wouldn’t need them right now but for later.  
Christie found a couple carabineers  
Amanda found a slingshot and marbles.  
Christie found a couple bandanas and bug spray.  
Amanda was excited when she found something she didn’t think she would find. People usually stock up on food and water during an emergency. But sometimes forget to bring something to cook the food in. And what she found looked very compact and just looked like a cup and not a cooking set. That’s what it is, it’s a stainless steel cup that could boil 24 oz of water or cook food, it also came with two insulated plastic cups. Amanda found a Stanley Adventure outdoor cooking set. It was a little dented but it was still in pretty good shape considering the circumstances. She couldn’t find any camping utensils, but finding this beauty was a lifesaver.  
She made room in her pack for it.  
They could have stayed in that store for a while looking for items but it was getting late. They had to find a place to stay for the night.  
They hurried out of the store and quietly dodged some deadies.  
The girls looked around at the houses, they were trying to pick one to get into.  
They saw some houses had Deadies in them, they didn’t want to go in there, they saw some had people in them, they didn’t know if they were good or bad people, they had to find a place quick.  
Finally they saw a house, it was away from most of the deadies. Amanda killed a few while they were looking for a place.  
Christie tried the door, it was locked.  
“Of course it’s locked.” Amanda said.  
“How are we supposed to get in then?” Christie asked.  
“Sounds to me you have lived a very sheltered life.” Amanda said.  
Christie shrugged.  
Amanda sighed and took out a paperclip.  
“You know how to pick a lock?” Christie asked.  
“Living with my brothers, they taught me a few things.” Amanda said and began preparing the paperclips to pick the lock.  
It took about five minutes to unlock the door, but another thing was holding the door shut, it was a chain lock.  
“Now what?” Christie asked.  
Amanda took out her ponytail holder and used it as a rubber band to get the chain lock off.  
“Wow.” Christie gasped in amazement.  
Amanda chuckled at that.  
They walked inside, shut the door and looked around, they couldn’t see that anybody was living here, that didn’t mean a whole lot. They checked every room on the main floor. There was canned food in the cupboards and ramen noodles. There was also a bottled water cooler with about a gallon of water left in it.  
“Stock up.” Amanda said.  
“But it’s somebody else’s food.” Christie said.  
Amanda sighed, “Do you see this counter? Do you see this table? And this floor?”  
“Yes.” Christie said.  
“There is a layer of dust that has been undisturbed for at least a week. This place either been abandoned or they died, my guess on the latter. Stay here and start packing. I’m going to check upstairs.”  
Christie did as she was told, she packed up the cans first and then the ramen noodles on top. She was glad she had such a big backpack for school, she could fit all of the food in it, she still had some extra room left.  
Amanda heard a shuffling noise in what looked like a bedroom.  
She made sure her arrow was loaded in her crossbow and she opened the door. There was a Deadie woman, she saw Amanda and came charging.  
Amanda shot the woman in the head with her arrow. She looked around some more, found another door and opened it. Two kids were Deadies. A boy and a girl, both looked like they were no older than eight.  
They came charging at Amanda, She fired an arrow at the little boy and he died, Amanda took out her knife and stabbed the little girl in the head.  
That almost made Amanda sick, it was one thing killing adult Deadies, but seeing little kids as Deadies was horrible.  
She looked through the rest of the house and couldn’t find any more deadies.  
Amanda came back downstairs, walked to the door and locked it.  
“Amanda is that you?” Christie called from the kitchen worried.  
“Yah it’s me, just locking the door.” Amanda said.  
“What’s the point if people can break in anyway?” Christie asked.  
“Not everybody knows how to pick a lock.” Amanda said. “And if someone does come in, we’re not going to make it easy for them.”  
Christie nodded in understanding.  
The first thing Amanda did was check to see if the stove would work, it didn’t, everything in the house was electric.  
“Now what?” Christie asked.  
“What kind of food was there?”  
“Ramen noodles, soups, canned pasta, canned fruit, fruitsnacks, half bag of animal cookies, full bag of chocolate cream cookies, half bag of Lucky Charms, half bag of Fruit Loops and half bag of Cheerios, and a full box of apples and cinnamon oatmeal.” Christie said. “Found a half box of Capri sun juice pouches.  
“Great.” Amanda said with a smile. “I could go for some canned pasta tonight.” “Me too, but I wish we didn’t have to eat it cold.” Christie said.  
“Why would we have to do that?” Amanda asked.  
“Well the power is out, the stove doesn’t work.” Christie said.  
Amanda sighed. “There is a lot you need to learn. We are going to cook the pasta.”  
“How?” Christie asked.  
Amanda grinned.  
Christie gave Amanda a weird look but took out a can of pasta.  
Amanda looked through the cupboards and found what she was looking for, a metal baking pan.  
“What are you doing?” Christie asked.  
“We are going to have us a hot meal.” Amanda said and grinned.  
“How? The electricity is out and you said this stove is electric.” Christie said.  
Amanda just smiled and without saying anything, walked into the living room and started searching for candles.  
She found four tea light candles being used as decorations. They haven’t been lit yet, they were brand new.  
She searched for more candles and found a half box of tea lights in a closet. She grabbed those and took them out of the box and put them in a baggie and put them in her bag.  
She came back into the kitchen.  
“What are those?” Christie asked.  
“These are going to cook us our meal.” Amanda explained.  
“Four little candles?” Christie asked.  
Amanda nodded.  
She placed baking pan on the table and placed the four tea lights in the middle of the baking pan. Christie poured the contents of the canned pasta in a small pot she found.  
Amanda lit the candles and set the pot on top of the baking pan.  
Christie found a wooden spoon in a drawer to stir the food. “How long do we have to wait?”  
“Maybe 10 to 15 minutes.” Amanda said.  
“So, how does this work?” Christie asked.  
“Well, I’ve never done it before, I saw the idea online before. The metal of the baking pan reflects the heat, the heat will eventually rise because it has nowhere else to go but up. Which will heat up the food in another metal pot.” Amanda said.  
“Makes sense.” Christie said.  
They waited for about fifteen minutes. Christie was stirring the pasta every few minutes. Finally they thought it was hot enough.  
They had canned pasta and two chocolate cream cookies for their meal. They both drank their fill of water from the water cooler.  
After that, they went exploring the house while they still had some daylight left. They were looking for anything else they might find useful. They found more tampons and pads. They found rubber bands in a drawer along with flashlights and batteries, a couple bic lighters, ponytail holders, bandages, Neosporin, Vaseline, toilet paper, wet wipes, napkins, Vitamin pill supplements, soap and shampoo, they looked through the dead woman’s drawers and closet and took her socks and underwear, they didn’t find any useful pants. They found some fleece shirts and some flannel shirts.  
They went looking through the house some more, Christie found a water bottle holder with a strap and a 32 oz Naglene water bottle. Amanda found a pot holder, she stuffed that in her bag, she also grabbed some silverware and put it in a baggie. She found more baggies and to her delight, aluminum foil. She tore the foil off of the roll and folded the foil until they were real small pieces.  
Amanda looked in the freezer and to their delight, there were two loaves of thawed bread that still looked ok, they took the bread and found more peanut butter. They put it in a little backpack they found in the little girl’s bedroom. They hooked it onto Christie’s backpack with a carabineer.  
Amanda checked the coat closet and found a packable poncho. It is a blue Frogs Togs brand poncho. After they found all they could carry, they chose the little girl’s room to sleep on the floor, the other two rooms had the dead bodies of the Deadies.  
They decided to take showers as long as there was running water. Unfortunately the water was cold. It was good just to get clean and get the sweat and dirt and Deadie guts off from the day.  
They cleaned their clothes the same way they did last time and let them dry by laying them out.  
The little girl’s bed was too small to sleep in, they decided to camp on the floor. They put blankets under them and covered up with blankets. They took the pillows from the woman’s bedroom and used those.  
The next morning they got up and each had a packet of warm oatmeal for breakfast. Amanda boiled water using the same method as yesterday using the last of the four candles they used yesterday. They drank their fill of water while they ate then filled up their empty water bottles.  
After they made sure they had everything and couldn’t fit any more in their packs. They left the house.


	6. Chapter 6

It would have taken them another four hours to get to Cabot Ridge. But they had to dodge deadies. Amanda killed five of them on the way, Christie even killed two of them. They had to dodge a group of bikers who looked mean and nasty. It also began to rain. The girl’s put on their ponchos and Amanda put the garbage bag on her crossbow.   
After a while of walking in the rain. Christie asked if they should walk in the woods.

“That would slow us down. First because of the mud, and the grass would be slippery.” Amanda said.

“But we’re out in the open here. Those men could get us at any time.” Christie said.

“We’d hear them before they see us.” Amanda said.

They kept on walking. It was really hot under their ponchos and they were drinking more water because of the heat.  
Finally after two hours, the rain stopped. They were glad to take off their ponchos and shake the water off of them. They wrapped their ponchos around their waist so they would dry. Amanda folded and packed the garbage bag and put it in the baggie.   
They kept on walking and ate a granola bar for energy when they got hungry.  
They had to kill three more Deadies. Amanda killed two and Christie ended up killing one.  
The four hours it would have taken them to walk to Cabot Ridge, actually took them six. They were really tired.

“Are we almost there?” Christie asked.

“Almost.” Amanda said.

“There’s something that has been nagging me.” Christie said.

“What?” Amanda asked.

“We’ve passed so many cars. Why don’t we just get in one and drive to Cabot Ridge? It would be faster.” Christie said.

“It would, but… I can’t hotwire a car.” Amanda said.

“Don’t you have to just cross the wires?” Christie asked.

“Um, no, that’s only done in movies, it’s a lot more complicated. Believe me, Merle tried to teach me. The car we were using… well, I won’t go into detail, the outcome of that experience was Merle being arrested.” Amanda said.

“Oh come on, tell me.” Christie said.

Amanda sighed, “My brothers, they are not perfect, far from it. My dad, from the stories, was an abusive drunk. Both of my brothers are trouble. Moreso Merle than Daryl, but Daryl has his moments. Merle has been in jail a lot for drugs. Daryl has never gone to jail, Merle covered for Daryl a few times when things were Daryl’s fault.”

“Like what?” Christie asked.

Amanda chuckled, “Like hotwiring a cop car.” 

Christie gasped.

“Merle’s robbed a few stores in his time and has gone to jail for that, he’s robbed a liquor store before, he’s gone to jail for drugs.” Amanda said.

“And why do you want to find them?” Christie asked, “Merle sounds bad.”

Amanda shook her head no, “He’s not bad… misunderstood yes, but not bad. He’s protective of Daryl and me. Like I said, he covered for Daryl and me and went to jail for it. They both taught me everything I know about survival. They made my first bug out bag, bought me my crossbow. Once you get to know my brothers, you know they have good in them.”   
Before anything else was said, they had to dodge and kill five more Deadies. 

“Amanda, there’s more coming, there’s a group of them, they heard us.” Christie said with panic.

Amanda looked around, they were very outnumbered, even if Christie knew how to fight, they couldn’t kill them all without getting bit themselves. If they ran, the Deadies would follow.

“What do we do?” Christie asked worried.

Amanda looked around. There was a car that smashed into a tree, there was a limb just barely arms reach away.  
“We need to climb the tree.” Amanda said.

“How?” Christie asked.

“Get on the car. Hurry, I’ll cover you.” Amanda said. And she killed another Deadie and grabbed her arrow.

Christie hurried towards the car. Before she could climb up it, a Deadie grabbed her behind her back and tried to bite her neck, Christie’s backpack saved her, it couldn’t get to her, but the Deadie wouldn’t let go of the Backpack.  
“Christie, get the pack off.” Amanda yelled.

Christie slipped her arms through and her backpack was off and she had an easier time climbing up on the car without it. The deadie threw the backpack to the ground not gently, Christie saw the little girl’s backpack rip. She tried jumping to get to the tree limb, the Deadie almost made her fall, it was swiping at her. Christie took out her knife and stabbed the Deadie in the head.

Amanda stabbed a few more Deadies with her knife before she jumped up on the car.  
“Are you ok?” Amanda asked.

Christie nodded. “The bag the bread was in ripped.”

“That’s the least of our problems.” Amanda said.

Amanda saw more Deadies coming their way, there were about 20 more of them.

“Come on, we need to get in the tree.” Amanda said.

“How? It’s too high.” Christie said.

Amanda was only a little bit taller than Christie, but it was just enough for her to jump and grab at the limb. She had a hard time pulling herself up, her pack was too heavy.She let go of the limb with one hand and unclipped the carabineers that held her water. She also threw the 32 oz bottle that was in her water bottle holder. That made things lighter and she had an easier time pulling herself up. Once she was up she reached down for Christie. 

Christie tried reaching her by getting on her tiptoes. She still couldn’t reach.

“You’re going to have to jump.” Amanda said.

“I can’t.” Christie cried.

“You can.” Amanda said.

Christie pocketed her knife and jumped grabbing Amanda’s forearms. 

Amanda pulled Christie up and they were breathing heavy once they were safe up in the tree.

“Can they get us up here?” Christie asked.

“No.” Amanda said.

“What do we do now?” Christie asked, “There’s too many of them.”  
Amanda took her slingshot and marbles she found at the store where they got Christie’s shoes.

“Marbles?” Christie asked.

“First thing Merle and Daryl had me hunt with were rocks and marbles, they can kill squirrels, rabbits and birds with enough force. Let’s see how they do with killing a Deadie.” Amanda said.

She aimed the slingshot with a marble in it at a Deadie’s head. She pulled back the rubber sling and fired.  
The marble sailed into the Deadie’s head, it created a hole but didn’t quite kill it. She shot another marble at the same Deadie, this marble a little bigger, it hit the Deadie in a different spot and killed it.

Amanda shot marbles at the Deadies, she used the bigger ones, they were working better. Sometimes she had to shoot the Deadies twice before they would die, the marbles weren’t perfect, but they were saving the girls’ lives.

Finally there was a pile of bodies by the car and the tree, they didn’t see any more deadies close to them. They jumped down from the tree and had their knives out.

“Stab each one in the head just in case.” Amanda ordered.

Christie nodded.

They stabbed each one in the head to make sure they were dead. They then picked up and examined their gear they had to drop. The water bottles Amanda had dropped were broken but the carabineers were ok. 

Christie picked up her bag, it was wet inside. She opened up her pack and all of the water bottles, soda and Gatorade that were in there were smashed and all over everything. The Capri Sun’s were all punctured and over everything as well. The only water bottle that was saved was the Nalgene water bottle.

Christie looked worried, the only water they had now was what was in the Naglene and the 16 oz in Amanda’s pocket.  
Because of the backpack getting wet, the cookies were smashed and soggy, they threw them out, the bread in the little girl’s backpack was thrown everywhere on the ground. The left over rice cakes were smashed but they kept them, they also kept the smashed granola bars, The canned food, ramen and oatmeal were all ok. The fruitsnacks were fine so was the peanut butter and jelly.

“This is why we keep a lot of our survival gear in these baggies, they won’t get wet.” Amanda explained. “Come on, we have to go.” Amanda said.

“What will we do for water?” Christie asked.

“We’ll be fine, I know where there's a stream.” Amanda said.

“But that’s not good.” Christie said.

“We’re going to boil the water.” Amanda said. “Like we have been.”

Christie nodded.

They spent another half hour getting up the hill that would bring them to the cabin. On their way there, they found black berry bushes. Amanda took out a baggie and a pair of gloves and they hurriedly started picking. She had Christie hold the baggie.

“Why are you wearing gloves?” Christie asked.

“There are little thorns that are very sharp.” Amanda said.

Once they had a baggie full of blackberries, they started on their way up again. Amanda killed two more Deadies on the way up.

Finally Amanda saw the log cabin and there was a five foot tall wire privacy fence all around the property with wood with a flat surfaced wood top.

“That wasn’t here before.” Amanda said, “They must have done that to keep the Deadies out."

Christie opened up the door to the fence and the girls walked inside.

They latched the fence door and hurried towards the cabin. Amanda couldn’t wait to see her brothers.

“Merle, Daryl, I’m here.” Amanda called, She didn’t want to startle them, these were dangerous times.

The two girls walked inside and Amanda’s heart sank. Nobody was here. They checked the bedroom and the bathroom. They weren’t there.

“Maybe they’re out hunting.” Christie said.

Amanda nodded, “You must be right, they’ll be back later.”

“So this is it?” Christie asked.  
The cabin has a wood burning fireplace and dining room table with four chairs. It has a small kitchen with a two burner stove next to the sink but no faucet. Lots of counter space and cupboards throughout the living room and kitchen. Amanda checked under the cupboards and was happy to see the pot and pan and Dutch oven, the tongs and ladle, four bowls, four plates and four sets of utensils were still there. There was a bedroom with two sets of adult bunk beds and two dressers, there was a bathroom with a shower stall connected from the bedroom and living room.

“They were here at one point, there’s beer cans.” Christie said.

Amanda nodded.

Christie looked around the cabin, there wasn’t much for furniture, just the table and chairs.

“We better get these clothes clean and dry.” Amanda said.

Christie nodded then frowned, “We don’t have water.”

Amanda grinned, the reason why she wasn’t so upset about losing all of the water was because of the water barrel in the back of the cabin.  
The girls walked outside with a 5 gallon container they found and Amanda showed her the 55 gallon barrel.

“We collect water from the stream during the summer and pour it in here so we always have water and don’t have to go to the stream every day. We filter it.” Amanda said.

“You don’t have running water here?” Christie asked.

Amanda shook her head no.

“How do you take showers?” Christie asked.

“A camp shower hooked to a bar in the bathroom.” Amanda said.

“Why?” Christie asked.

“So we didn’t have to worry about water bills.” Amanda said.

“But it’s going to be cold.” Christie said.

“It will be fine, at least we will be clean.” Amanda said.  
They filled up their 5 gallon container with water and went back inside.   
It took a gallon of water to clean the clothes that were dirty and sticky from the mess in the backpack. They laid them out on the chairs to dry.

Once it started getting dark, Amanda closed the curtains and started a fire with the woodpile by the fireplace.

“Nobody will see the smoke or fire when it’s dark.” Amanda said.

They both used a gallon of water to take fast showers. 

Amanda heated up a can of soup for supper over the fire and shared a pouch of fruit snacks. They cleaned their clothes they were wearing that day too and were wrapped up in towels. 

“What if your brothers come in and we are looking like this?” Christie asked.

Amanda chuckled, “Vulgar comments will be made but they’d understand.”

They slept in the bunk beds that night.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooking squirrel and unexpected visitors.

The next morning, Amanda woke up and saw Christie was still asleep, she was going to let Christie sleep as long as she wanted, they were safe here at the cabin for now. Amanda got up and got dressed, put her pocket hunter on and her knife on. She was still looking for her brothers, she was disappointed they weren’t here. Amanda picked up the beer cans, walked outside and looked at her surroundings.   
“This would be a good place to train her.” Amanda thought to herself.  
Amanda still had some marbles left and she could find pebbles too.   
She brought the beer cans over to the fence and lined them up.  
She saw a squirrel climb up on the fence, it was eating a nut of some sort. She took out her pocket hunter and one of the arrows. She aimed her pocket hunter and arrow at the squirrel. Before the squirrel knew what hit him, the arrow went through it.  
Amanda smiled and watched it writhe. They were going to have squirrel today.  
She grabbed a marble, walked over to the squirrel, aimed her Pocket Hunter at it and put it out of its misery. Then she picked it up and went inside. Christie was still asleep.  
Amanda put the squirrel on the counter. She was going to show Christie how to clean a squirrel. It was still early yet. Amanda went back outside, maybe she could find more squirrels.   
Unfortunately she couldn’t find more squirrels around the property, but she did find some wild edible plants, clovers, cattails and dandelions. She was going to make a soup out of them.  
Amanda walked back inside and saw that Christie was up.  
“Good morning.” Christie said.  
“Morning.” Amanda said.  
“Sorry I overslept, you should have woke me up.” Christie said.  
Amanda shrugged. “We’re safe for the moment, I was going to have you sleep as much as you wanted.”  
“Oh.” Christie said and then saw what was in Amanda’s hands, “What’s that?”  
“Plants.” Amanda said.  
“Plants?” Christie asked.  
“Edible plants.” Amanda said.  
“What are those for?” Christie asked.  
“For dinner tonight.” Amanda said. “I’m making a soup out of them.”  
“But we have food, we don’t need to eat plants.” Christie said.  
“It’s best to save our food for when we are not in the wilderness.” Amanda said.  
“Oh. So where are we going next?” Christie asked.  
Amanda shrugged, “I don’t know. I was hoping Merle and Daryl would be here by now. I guess we just wait until they return.”   
“What if they don’t?” Christie asked.  
Amanda shrugged again. “It’s safe here, the gate can keep the Deadies out, there’s wild animals to eat. We can get water from the stream.”   
“So… we’re just going to stay here?” Christie asked.  
Amanda nodded, “For now. And it will be a safe place for you to train.”  
“Train?” Christie asked.  
“To fend for yourself.” Amanda said. “You’re going to learn how to shoot, and how to skin a squirrel today.”  
“What? No!” Christie protested.  
“No?” Amanda was taken back.  
“I’ll learn how to shoot, but not to skin a squirrel, they’re cute.” Christie said.  
“They’re cute, and they’re food.” Amanda said.  
“We have food, we don’t need to kill squirrels.” Christie said.  
Amanda sighed, “We’ve been through this. Besides, the squirrel is already dead.”  
“What? You killed an innocent squirrel?” Christie was shocked.  
“I did, and it’s going to feed us tonight.” Amanda said.  
Christie crossed her arms, “I’m not going to eat squirrel.”   
Amanda rolled her eyes, “I don’t want to argue right now, that is what we’re having for supper. That and wild plant soup.”   
“No, we have food, we don’t need to…” Christie started.  
“Hey. Stop being a brat.” Amanda said. “I am in charge, if you do not like how I’m running things, then go take your chances out there.”  
Christie was surprised and was quiet.  
“Well?” Amanda asked.  
“I’ll stay with you.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded, “Good. Now then, lets go shoot.”  
“What are we shooting?” Christie asked.  
“Beer cans.” Amanda said with a grin.  
The girls walked outside and Amanda used the slingshot first to show Christie what to do.  
She hit all of the targets.  
“Ok, now it’s your turn.” Amanda said handing her the slingshot. “What you have to do is hold the handle in your least dominant hand.  
Christie did this by holding the handle with her left hand.  
“Now, with the marble in the sling, pinch the sling using your right hand and pull back the rubber.” Amanda said.  
Christie did that.  
“Raise your right arm so your cheek is resting on your thumb knuckle.” Amanda said.  
Christie obeyed.  
“Now, look through the V shape and aim a little above your target which in this case is the beer can.” Amanda said.  
Christie did as she was told.  
“Now let it go.” Amanda said.  
Christie let it go and hit her first target. Christie grinned, “I did it.”  
Amanda smiled, “Good job, now do it again.”  
“Ok.” Christie said, “Handle in left hand, marble in sling, pinch the sling and pull back the rubber, left right hand up so my cheek is resting on my thumb knuckle, aim through the V a little above my target and let it go.”  
She hit the target again.  
Christie smiled, she was excited.  
She did it a few more times, she missed twice but the rest she got.  
“You are doing well.” Amanda said with a smile.  
They spent the day practicing with the slingshot and only stopping to eat brunch which consisted of the crushed granola bars mixed with blackberries that were picked the night before.  
After brunch, Christie practiced with the slingshot some more. She was hitting all the targets. Her arms were getting tired from doing it all day though.  
“Ok, we are going to move on to something different, you are getting really good at hitting the target, now, your next task is a moving target.” Amanda said.  
Christie looked nervous.  
Amanda tied a beer can to a tree using dental floss and the tab on the can. She made sure it had a good swing to it.  
“Ok, this is your target.” Amanda said, “Same rules apply, but not only do you need to aim higher than where it is, you also need to aim where it’s going to be when it gets there, not where it’s at now.”  
Amanda showed her first and then had Christie do it.  
This was harder for Christie to do. She didn’t hit the target once that day.  
“It’s ok, you are doing well. It takes time.” Amanda said.  
“I wanted to be able to hit it.” Christie said.  
“I know, you will.” Amanda said. “Come on, you can help me make dinner.”  
Christie wrinkled her nose at that.  
“I know it’s not pretty. But it’s survival.” Amanda said, “Are you going to argue with me again?”  
Christie shook her head no.  
They walked inside and walked over to the dead squirrel. She took a bowl and filled it with water and dunked the squirrel in it.  
“This helps keep the fur off of the meat.” Amanda explained then took out one of the knives from one of the guys she killed back in Auburn.  
“First we cut a slit underneath the squirrel’s tail on top its tailbone. But not through the skin on the other side, we want to keep the tail intact.” Amanda said and then demonstrated.  
Christie heard the popping noise of the bone popping and she jumped and shivered.  
“Don’t think about it.” Amanda said. “Then take your knife and just cut down the back a little bit to give us more to work with.  
Amanda demonstrated.  
“Next is the fun part.” Amanda said and she put the squirrel on the floor belly up and grabbed the hind legs and stepped on its tail. “This is going to remove most of the skin.”  
She pulled at the squirrel and the skin was coming off like how someone took a shirt off but the skin was stuck on the head. The tail ripped off the squirrel.   
“I don’t want to eat the head.” Christie said.  
“That’s fine, I don’t care for squirrel head either. Merle and Daryl love that part.” Amanda said and she cut off the squirrel head.  
Christie shivered at that.  
The hind legs still had fur on them. Amanda took the skin off those like taking off a pair of pants inside out.  
“Then you cut the skin off away from you and cut the paws.” Amanda said. “See? It just looks like a little chicken.”  
“If you say so.” Christie sighed.  
“Now we have to gut it.” Amanda said wrinkling her nose, “I hate this part… Start at the sternum and cut up towards where the head would be.”  
She demonstrated while talking.  
“Then turn it over and get underneath the flap and cut through, not to touch the intestines.” Amanda said.  
“Why?” Christie asked.  
“Because then it will get messy and might contaminate the meat.” Amanda said.  
Amanda cut through the squirrel and Christie wrinkled her nose when she saw the intestines.  
“Now, some people eat the heart and liver, my brothers do. Again, I don’t like it so I throw them out.” Amanda said.   
“Fine by me.” Christie said.  
“Oh, and always check the liver for spots, if it has spots, the squirrel is bad and shouldn’t be eaten.” Amanda said.  
Amanda got the intestines out and took those and the head, walked outside and threw them outside away from the house.  
She came back inside and started preparing the squirrel.  
“The best way to get everything you can out of a squirrel is by boiling it, you get all the nutrients it has from it.” Amanda said and she cut up the squirrel in smaller pieces and put them in a Dutch oven pot, she then went over to the fireplace and started a fire.  
Christie filled the pot up with water.  
After that Amanda cut up the editable plants that she found and put them in with the squirrel meat.  
“This will give the squirrel some flavor and make our soup at the same time.” Amanda said.  
Once the fire was hot enough, Amanda carefully placed the Dutch oven over the fire.  
“How long do we have to wait?” Christie asked.  
“Oh, about 40 minutes and then we will check it.” Amanda said.  
“So what do we do in the meantime?” Christie asked.  
Amanda grinned, “Something my brothers always thought was childish but always had fun doing anyway once they got into it.”  
Amanda walked into the bedroom and opened up one of the dresser drawers, inside were 2 packs of cards.  
“UNO, Skipbo, or Mancala?” Amanda asked.  
“You keep games here?” Christie asked.  
“Of course. There’s no tv or a bookshelf, it can get pretty boring at night. We usually bring things to do, I usually read, but I keep a couple packs of cards and mancala, it’s a game that can be played by yourself or with another person.” Amanda said.  
Christie nodded, “I’ve played before. Lets play mancala.”  
They played mancala for about 40 minutes. They tied in who won the most. They ended up playing 4 games.   
Dinner smelled really good.  
Amanda put on the pot holder and took the dutch oven out of the fire. She took a tongs and a plate and took the squirrel out of the water and saw that it was done.  
Christie took a ladle out of the drawer and two bowls and two spoons.  
Amanda dished them up some soup and was just about to divvy up the squirrel when they heard the gate slam from outside.  
The girls looked wide eyed at each other for a moment, then they stood up in a hurry, Christie had her knife out, Amanda had her cross bow out and ready.   
“Go hide under the bed.” Amanda mouthed to Christie.  
Christie was too scared and she shook her head no.  
“Go, now.” Amanda mouthed.  
Christie hurriedly but quietly walked to the bedroom.  
Amanda waited for a few minutes, nothing happened.  
While still watching the door, Amanda slowly backed up towards the bedroom and whispered, “Hey, I’m going to go outside for a moment, if I’m not back in 180 seconds, you lock the door and barricade it with the table and chairs then you hide under the bed as far back as you can get.”   
Christie crawled out from under the bed and nodded.  
“But until then, you stay hidden.” Amanda said.  
Christie nodded again.  
Amanda grabbed a flashlight and the duct tape and taped the flashlight to her crossbow. She had her knife and Pocket Hunter on her as well. She took a deep breath and opened up the door. “Who’s there?”  
There was no point being sneaky since she had a flashlight.  
“Help.” A little voice was heard.  
Amanda aimed her crossbow where she heard the voice. There was a little boy, about five or six years old. He was kneeling by someone bigger.  
“Help us.” The man said. “Please.”  
“Were you bit?” Amanda asked.  
“No… stabbed.” The man said.  
Amanda shined the light on the man, he was stabbed in the side, the shirt was soaked.  
“Please help my daddy.” The little boy said.  
“I’ll try.” Amanda said. “I’ll be right back.”  
Amanda hurried inside, Christie was about to shut the door. “I need your help, a man was hurt, he has a little boy with him, we need to bring him inside.”  
Christie gasped and nodded.  
Amanda put her crossbow down and took the flashlight. They left the door open for the firelight, it wasn’t much but it was better than nothing.  
Amanda gave the little boy the flashlight, “Ok sweetie, I need you to shine that light so we can see where we are going.”  
The little boy nodded.  
“Ok sir, forgive me, but these are trying times.” Amanda said and she checked him for weapons, she found a knife in a sheath on his belt, she removed it and pocketed it. That was the only weapon the man had.  
The man leaned on both Amanda and Christie and they brought him inside.  
Christie hurried and grabbed some towels and laid one down so he would be comfortable and rolled one up as a pillow for his head.  
“Thank you.” The man said.  
With better light to look at him, the man looked feverish.  
“Um, we don’t have gloves.” Amanda said. “I need the hand sanitizer, wet wipes, a trash bag, pads, duct tape, Neosporin and IB profen.”   
Christie hurried towards the packs and found the things Amanda needed.  
Amanda used the sanitizer to clean her hands and used her knife to cut away the shirt. She saw the gash in the man’s side.   
“Uh, Christie, go take the boy into the bedroom, he shouldn’t see this.” Amanda said.  
“No, I wanna watch.” The little boy said.  
“He needs to learn.” The man said.  
Amanda sighed, “Ok, if you are sure.”   
Amanda cleaned the wound with the wet wipes and then opened up a pad and placed it on the wound and put pressure on the wound.  
Every five minutes the pad would be soaked and a new one would be applied on top of it. Finally after four pads, the bleeding seemed to subside.   
Amanda slowly took the pads off and used a wet wipe again on the wound. She then put a fresh pad on the wound with Neosporin on it.  
That was all Amanda could do for now. She took a wet wipe and cleaned her hands off from the blood.  
“We have some food. Not much, I killed a squirrel and found some wild plants today, made some soup. You and your son can have some.” Amanda said.  
Christie got two more bowls out and dished some soup for the boy and for the man. There was still extra soup.  
“Close the lid, we will eat the leftovers tomorrow.” Amanda said.  
“But there’s no refrigerator.” Christie said.  
“The soup will be fine. It will be boiled again before we eat it  
The man had a hard time sitting up. He ended up being propped up against his backpack the little boy brought inside.  
“Thank you.” The man said.  
To share the squirrel, they each got a leg, and a piece of the body.   
“Tastes like chicken.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded.  
After the man ate, Amanda gave him some IB Profen.   
“I’m sorry I don’t have anything stronger.” Amanda said.  
“It’s fine. We are lucky we found decent people like you.” The man said, “I’m Andy by the way, this is my son Jake.”  
“I’m Amanda, this is Christie. How did you find this cabin?” Amanda asked.  
“We’ve been running away from Biters and we ran into some bad men, that’s how I was stabbed. We made a run for it into the woods, they are looking for us on the road.” Andy said. “We’ve been in the woods for two days.   
“You’ve been bleeding for two days?” Christie asked, “No wonder you collapsed.”  
“I’ve been bandaging it, but I didn’t have time to just sit still and let it heal, those biters are everywhere, I then saw this cabin with a gate, the biters can’t get in. I wasn’t thinking, I’m sorry for scaring you. I just needed to get my boy safe.” Andy said.  
“It’s ok. We understand.” Amanda said.  
“We should get you into a bed, you will be more comfortable than the floor.” Christie said.  
The man nodded.  
Amanda and Christie helped the man to his feet, he swayed but was upright.  
“Um, Jake, bring one of the clean towels that doesn’t have blood.” Amanda said.  
Jake did as he was told.  
Christie pulled the bed covers down and took the towel and laid that down and helped lay Andy on the bed.  
Christie went to the bathroom and grabbed a cloth, she put it in some water and squeezed it out. She put the cloth on the man’s forehead.   
Jake took his dad’s shoes and socks off.  
“All we can do is wait for the fever to break and change the pad.” Amanda said.  
“Can’t it be stitched up?” Christie asked.  
Amanda shook her head no, “He was stabbed two days ago. The wound is infected, if we stich it, it will get worse.”   
“Will Daddy be ok?” Jake asked.  
“I hope so. I did all I could do. All we can do is wait.” Amanda said. “We should get some sleep, Jake, you will sleep in the bottom bunk over here, Christie and I will sleep in the top bunks.   
Jake did as he was told and took his shoes and socks off and laid down on the bottom bunk, he was watching his daddy sleep fitfully.  
The girls changed out of their bloodstained shirts and then took their shoes and socks off and climbed in the top bunks. They kept their knives with them and Amanda kept her pocket hunter with her.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning Amanda checked on Andy, he was still feverish.   
Amanda started a fire to get the soup back to boiling, they were going to eat that for breakfast. She was hoping the dandelions and clovers in the soup would help Andy heal. She also put some of the blackberries in a bowl and mashed them up. The blackberries would also help Andy heal, she was going to feed him this and then give him some IB profane.  
Andy was tossing fitfully in his sleep.  
Amanda touched his shoulder and shook him awake.  
His eyes looked fevered.  
“It’s ok, it’s ok, you’re safe. You have a fever.” Amanda said. “I want you to eat this, they’re blackberries, they should help you. I’m going to give you more IB profane after you eat this. And I have left over soup boiling which will also help you.”   
Andy barely managed a nod.  
Amanda fed him the blackberries. Andy was so tired he just wanted to sleep.  
Amanda gave him two IB profane and a sip of water. She was going to see how he stomached that.   
Christie woke up and saw Amanda give him the medicine. She got down from the bed and brought Andy a cool washcloth.  
Amanda changed the pad on the wound. At least it wasn’t bleeding like it was before, she cleaned it again and put a fresh pad on the wound.  
After a while Jake woke up and the soup was done.  
Christie gave everybody a bowl of soup.  
“Is my daddy going to be ok?” Jake asked.  
“We are doing everything we can to make him better.” Amanda said.  
After they ate. Amanda put her shoes on and grabbed her crossbow.  
“What are you doing?” Christie asked.  
“I’m going hunting. You stay here and keep putting cloths on Andy’s head. Keep Jake entertained.” Amanda said. “Keep the door locked and blocked, I will knock Five times, then stop, and knock two times.”   
Christie nodded.  
Amanda grabbed a couple baggies and the work gloves.  
“I’m going to grab some more berries while I’m hunting.” Amanda said.  
Christie nodded.  
Amanda left the cabin with her Crossbow, Knife and Pocket Hunter. Along with dental floss, she was going to make snares.  
She was being very cautious, didn’t want to run into any Deadies.   
After ten minutes of making snares in various places, she found a blackberry bush, she picked all the blackberries she could carry and put them in the baggies and put them in her pocket.  
She heard a twig snap, her heart started racing, it could be a deadie.   
She got her crossbow ready and waited. To her delight, it wasn’t a deadie, it was a squirrel.  
She shot the squirrel and killed it.  
She found a stick, used her knife to give it a bit of a point and threaded the stick through the dead squirrel’s feet so it would be easier to carry.  
She set up two more snares for bigger game in different places and started heading back to the cabin.  
On the way back, she ran into one Deadie and killed it. She also killed another squirrel and threaded it to her stick.  
Amanda returned to the cabin and knocked five times and then two times.  
Christie opened the door.  
“I killed two squirrels and I picked berries.” Amanda said.  
Christie nodded. “Ok, I’ve been putting cold cloths on Andy’s forehead, he’s still sleeping.”  
Amanda nodded, “Sleeping is what he needs, I’m glad he didn’t throw up the berries and medicine.”  
“So is this going to be our lives now? Living on squirrels?” Christie asked.  
Amanda sighed, “I don’t know. All I know is we are safe, the Deadies cannot get to us. I can hunt for us for food, there is a stream where we can get water. We’re going to need more firewood soon.”   
“How? We don’t have a chainsaw.” Christie said.  
“We have an axe.” Amanda said, “In the back.”  
She put the squirrels and the berries down and she and Christie walked outside and Amanda led her to the axe that was in the wheelbarrow   
“We’re going to cut down trees with that?” Christie asked.  
“More like thick branches. I want to get a good stockpile. We have enough for now, you need to learn how to shoot, first, then you can help me out there.” Amanda said.  
Christie nodded.  
“Speaking of that, you need to practice.” Amanda said.  
They went back inside and checked on Andy and Jake, Jake was taking a nap.  
Amanda changed Andy’s pad again and Christie put a cool cloth on Andy’s head again.  
They walked back outside with the marbles and the slingshot. Amanda swung the hanging beer can and Christie tried to hit it after remembering what to do. She still couldn’t hit the swinging beer can.  
Amanda was getting impatient and stopped the swinging. “Ok, hit the beer can when it’s not swinging.”  
Christie did and hit the can.  
“Ok, do it again.” Amanda said.  
Christie hit the beer can again and again and again, as many times as Amanda wanted her to.  
“Ok, now it’s going to swing, I want you to hit the swinging beer can, remember aim for where it’s going to be, not where it’s at.” Amanda said.  
Christie did as she was told and hit the beer can once out of the five times she tried.  
Amanda sighed, “Try it again.”  
“I’m tired, my arm hurts.” Christie said.  
“Well if that can was a Deadie, it wouldn’t care if you’re tired.” Amanda said.  
“Why are you being mean?” Christie asked.  
“I’m not being mean.” Amanda said.  
“This is like slingshot boot camp.” Christie said.  
“Well then welcome to boot camp, think about it like that and it can save your life.” Amanda said.  
“Can we just take a break? Eat something? We haven’t been eating enough for the amount of moving we’ve been doing.” Christie said. “We’re safe, we have food.”  
“We’re safe for now. Rule number two, never ever let your guard down.” Amanda said.  
“What’s rule number one?” Christie asked.  
“Always do what I say because it will save your life.” Amanda said.  
Christie sighed.  
Amanda sighed too, “Come on. We’ll eat some trail mix and then back to it.”   
They went back inside and Jake found the fruit snacks, he ate only one pouch of them but had three more out.  
The fact that he ate the fruit snacks didn’t bother Amanda so much, but the fact he got inside her pack did.  
“NO.” Amanda yelled angerily.  
That scared Jake.   
Amanda stormed over to where Jake was at and he was next to her pack, she took the pack away and took the unopened fruit snacks away.  
“Bad boy Jake.” Amanda scolded. “It’s naughty to touch other people’s things, you are going in time out.”  
“No time out.” Jake cried.  
“Yes time out.” Amanda said and picked up the squirming five year old and placed him in the corner.  
The little boy was screaming and crying.  
“Throw a fit if you want. But you’re not coming out until you calm down and think about what you did.” Amanda said.  
“I’m hungry.” Jake cried.  
“See? He ate the fruit snacks because he’s hungry.” Christie said. “We’re all hungry.”  
“It’s not about the fruit snacks. It’s about him getting into my bag. There is a knife in there, there are arrow tips in there, there are things that if he ingested he would get sick.” Amanda said.  
“Well now he knows better. He was just hungry.” Christie said.  
Amanda was frustrated. She took out of her pack a package of oatmeal, she put some water on the fire to boil, she split the oatmeal up into two bowls, once the water was hot, she poured the water into the oatmeal bowls. She also took a pack of crushed granola and split it up and put crushed granola in the bowls. She put the two bowls on the table and had Christie sit down.  
She did.  
“Ok Jake, you can come out of the corner.” Amanda said.  
A teary eyed Jake came out of the corner.  
“Now, did you think about what you did?” Amanda asked.  
“Don’t touch other people’s stuff.” Jake said.  
“That’s right, if you are hungry and you want something, you ask me or Christie first ok?” Amanda asked.  
Jake nodded.  
“Come here.” Amanda said and she picked Jake up and hugged him. “Are you still hungry?”   
Jake nodded.  
Amanda helped Jake sit in the chair and he ate his oatmeal with granola.  
Christie liked this side of Amanda, not the scary angry side.  
A few days passed, Andy was getting better, the fever broke and he was eating more than just berries. Amanda didn’t feed him much more than berries and soup but then added a bit of meat to the soup.  
They found out Andy and Jake lost Andy’s wife to the Deadies. She sacrificed herself to save them. The girls told Andy and Jake how their parents died as well. They spent a night honoring their lost loved ones.  
Both of the girls decided to save on water, they were going to cut their hair, it would keep their hair cleaner and easier to manage. They used a pair of scissors from Andy’s pack. They cut about ten inches off each, went from hair down their back to their hair being chin length, they could still get a little ponytail in their hair, but it was also cooler.  
Amanda went hunting every day and checked her snares, they were empty. She usually came back with just squirrel and berries. Christie was finally able to hit the beer can target when it was moving 90 percent of the time. She was also able to skin the squirrel and cook the squirrel, Amanda liked that she didn’t have to do everything by herself. Everybody found out if they had a late breakfast and had brunch and dinner, if they had their biggest meal for their first meal, they would function better and just have a light dinner. They didn’t seem that hungry that way.  
After having the snares in place for two weeks, Amanda went hunting again, she killed two squirrels again and found all of her snares empty, all except one, in it was a hare. It was trying to get free, it was making so much noise.  
Amanda took her knife and stabbed it in the head to put it out of its misery.   
Today was a good hunting day, two squirrels and a hare. They had enough food for four days.  
Everybody was happy for the hare, Christie was sad since it looked a lot like a rabbit but she was glad to eat something that wasn’t squirrel, she was realizing food was more important than cuteness of the animal.   
Since they weren’t going to eat all of the food at once, it had to be turned into jerky to preserve it.   
Amanda chose to turn the squirrels and half of the hare into jerky, they’d eat the other half of the hare for their meal today. She sliced up the squirrel and hare into thin slices. She looked through the closet and smiled, she took out the tripod Daryl made to make jerky in the fireplace. All it is, is three sticks together to make a triangle and smaller sticks tied to make a platform.  
“What’s that for?” Christie asked.  
“Since this meat will last for at least four days, we have no refrigeration, I’m going to make jerky out of it so it will not spoil.” Amanda explained.  
Everybody, including Andy, watched Amanda dry out the jerky, it took about three hours over the little fire, not a big one, didn’t want to cook just smoke the jerky.  
By the time Andy was up and walking around for longer than a few minutes a day, they were almost out of water in the 55 gallon barrel.   
“We need more water.” Christie said after getting another 5 gallons from the barrel.  
Amanda groaned, she knew this day was coming, but it was going to be so hard lugging up the water. Her brothers usually did this part and they usually had a vehicle.  
They took the 5 gallon container that is used for the dirty water and they put it in the wheelbarrow, this was going to be the easiest way to transport the water.   
Amanda told Andy the code to make sure it was them.   
Andy nodded in understanding.  
The girls had an easy time wheel barrowing down to the stream and filling the container up. It was harder pushing the wheelbarrow up the hill back to the cabin with the water inside.  
They had to go back and forth nine times to fill up the barrel. It took them two days. They did 5 on one day and four on the next day.  
They spent more time at the cabin. It was getting cooler. All they had for warmth were jackets, the fireplace and blankets.


	9. Chapter 9

Amanda trained Christie some more, she now could kill squirrels with marbles and rocks. She also learned how to make snares. Amanda was teaching Jake how to use a slingshot, he liked making noise.  
They all pitched in collecting firewood for the winter, they were going to need a lot to keep warm all winter. None of them had warm clothes, only jackets.  
“We need to find warmer clothes.” Christie said.  
“I know.” Amanda said with a sigh.  
“We could try that little town.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded. “Sedailia. Not much there but a gas station, a grocery store and trailers.”   
“They might have supplies.” Andy said.  
“Yah, ok. Andy, you and Jake stay here. You’re still not 100 percent yet and Jake’s too small.” Amanda started.  
“I am not.” Jake protested.  
“Its fine, we will stay here.” Andy said.  
Christie emptied out her backpack so they would have plenty of room to store things in. Amanda did the same with the bulkier items. She kept enough items to get by for a couple nights, just in case. She never goes out anywhere empty handed these days.  
The two girls headed out, Amanda with the crossbow, Christie with the Pocket Hunter. Each of them also had their knives and their armor on.  
It took them three hours to get down from the mountain. On their way down, they were setting snares.  
Finally they made it down, they could see Deadies.  
“First thing we need to do is get warm clothes. Our best chance is to look through the trailers.” Amanda said.  
“Right.” Christie said.  
They headed over to the trailer park, they had to kill four Deadies while getting over there. The first trailer they tried had two deadies in there. They hurried to the bedroom and looked to see what they could use. They found four men’s XL sweatshirts and found socks. The pants were too big. They also found some jerky and a couple cans of vegetables in the cupboards.  
“There’s not much here.” Christie said.  
They began looking for weapons, they couldn’t find any guns.  
“This place has been looted in a hurry, they took all the guns.” Amanda said.  
“But not all the food.” Christie said.  
“Lucky for us.” Amanda said.  
They searched the rest of the trailers and killed more deadies, they found a couple shirts and pants for Jake, sadly a little boy was killed. Found a couple pairs of pants that might fit Andy. And found a pair of pants that would fit Amanda and Christie. They also found a couple more long sleeved shirts, they were going to be fine this winter.   
None of the trailers had guns or any weapons. They found a little bit more food and two reusable water bottles, a Naglene and a Kleen Kanteen.  
After they went through the trailers, they still had room in their packs for more stuff, they killed more Deadies on their way to the grocery store. It looked like everything was picked clean.  
“Come on, we need to get back to the cabin.” Amanda said.  
The girls hurried back up to the cabin, they killed more Deadies on the way and checked their snares, they were happy, they caught two rabbits and a raccoon, they were going to be making jerky to store for the winter.  
They stopped to pick the rest of the berries that were on a bush. They put them in a baggie. They also found more edible plants.   
They heard a herd of Deadies coming. They looked at each other and climbed up in a tree, hoping they weren’t seen. The Deadies walked passed them.   
They waited for a few minutes just in case before climbing down and continuing their journey up the mountain.  
Finally they made it to the cabin and it looked like Andy had a fire going, it was nice.  
The girls showed the guys what they got. It was like Christmas for Jake, the clothes they brought him fit him well.   
A few days later, they had to go out and get more water from the stream. Jake was left on his own while the other three went down to the stream to get water.  
“What are we going to do about water when it gets really cold?” Christie asked.  
“Heat the water up.” Amanda said.  
“I mean, the water will freeze, we’d go thirsty.” Christie said. “It’s going to get below freezing up on this mountain.”  
“I was wondering that too.” Andy said.  
Amanda smirked, “The barrel will be insulated and we’re going to fill it up with a lot of water, the stream won’t be frozen solid.”  
“How are we going to insulate it?” Andy asked.  
“Less talking, more pushing.” Amanda said, “Explain once we finish this.”  
They pushed the wheel barrow up the hill for the last time that day. The barrel will finally be full.  
They dumped the water in the barrel.  
“So how are we going to insulate the barrel so it won’t freeze?” Christie asked.  
Amanda smiled, “Follow me.”  
They followed her inside, Amanda opened up one of the cupboards and inside was a plastic bag with duct tape all around it.  
“Merle made this years ago.” Amanda said, “We put this on the barrel every year so the water doesn’t freeze.”  
“But a regular garbage bag won’t keep the water from freezing.” Andy said.  
“True, but what is glued to the inside of the garbage bag will.” Amanda said with a grin and showed them, it was fiberglass foam.  
“Amazing.” Andy said. “So ingenious.”  
Amanda shrugged, “Not ingenious, just common sense. Way cheaper than buying a 55 gallon barrel jacket.”  
They put the insulation on then went back inside to skin the kill and make jerky.  
During the winter, they didn’t see much of the Deadies. They didn’t see a lot of wild life either. Amanda went hunting every day and the others went fishing. Sometimes they would have a couple fish, sometimes they didn’t come back with anything. They picked all of the cattails around the stream. Sometimes Amanda came back with a rabbit or a raccoon. She even climbed up a tree once and killed a sleeping owl. Food was scarce, this was the reason why she didn’t want to eat the canned food and other food that was in the pack. The adults decided they were going to only eat one meal and that would be brunch, they still had Jake eat two meals a day. When the adults felt hungry, they drank a glass of green tea. The water in the barrel never froze which was a good thing. And everybody stayed warm with the fire going and the blankets on.   
It was a hard and tough winter, but they made it through it. There was more Deadie activity in the spring and more game to hunt.  
One day all hell broke loose. Amanda, Christie and Andy were all getting water. They left Jake at the cabin like they have previous times.  
When they got to the cabin, it was swarming with Deadies. The gate was broken and they could hear Jake screaming inside.   
“We need to get him out of there.” Andy said he was afraid.  
Amanda gave Andy the Pocket Hunter, he knew how to shoot with it, he’s been practicing.   
Christie had the other Pocket Hunter on her belt, she knew how to use it. They both had four arrows for the pocket hunters and a handful of marbles and rocks. They also had their knives. Amanda had her arrows and her crossbow and her knife.   
They charged in, stabbed Deadies in the head with sneak attacks, Deadies spotted them and charged. Christie shot one in the head with the Pocket Hunter. Andy stabbed another one in the head.  
They fought through the Deadies to the door and got inside.  
“Daddy.” Jake cried and ran to Andy.  
“Jake.” Andy said and hugged his son, “Thank goodness you’re safe.”  
The girls blocked the door and windows as best as they could, they then began packing their packs.  
“We have to get out of here.” Amanda said. “Fill up the water bottles.”  
Christie filled up the two Naglenes and the Kleen Kanteen.  
“How? We’re surrounded by Deadies.” Christie said while filling up the water bottles.  
Everybody looked around to find an escape, there were Deadies at all of the windows.  
“This is going to sound crazy. We need to climb up the chimney, there’s no other way.” Amanda said.  
“Climb up the chimney? We’re not Santa Clause.” Christie said.  
“I know it sounds crazy.” Amanda said, “But it’s our only chance.”  
Andy put Jake’s jacket on him and put a sweatshirt in Christie’s pack for Jake.  
Amanda put her pack and her crossbow on. She then stepped into the chimney and put her hands on one side and her feet on the other and started slowly climbing the chimney.  
Christie and Andy took away the wood from the fireplace and replaced it with blankets and pillows to make it safe just in case she fell.  
A couple times Amanda slipped but caught herself.  
Finally she made it all the way up. She could see a lot of Deadies surrounding the cabin, some saw her and were growling at her.  
Amanda unraveled her survival bracelet. This would be the third time she had to use a survival bracelet since crap hit the fan.   
She threw it down the chimney. “Hurry you guys.”  
Andy picked up Jake as high as he could, gave him the rope. “Hang on tight and Amanda will pull you up.”  
“Ok Daddy.” Jake said.  
Amanda pulled Jake to the top and to the roof. “Don’t look down, stand right here and you’ll be safe.”  
“Ok Amanda.” Jake said.  
She threw the rope down again. The Deadies were getting through. Andy and Christie were stabbing them in the head.  
“Ok you’re next.” Andy said.  
“You can’t do this by yourself.” Christie said.  
“Go, now.” Andy ordered. He gave Christie the Pocket Hunter.  
“You need this.” Christie said.  
Andy ignored her and began stabbing Deadies in the head.  
Christie grabbed the rope and started to climb. She had her pack on her back.  
Once she was half way up the chimney, the Deadies got through, she could hear Andy screaming, “GO HURRY.”   
Christie was crying when she made it to the top.  
They all heard Andy scream from the roof.  
“GIRLS KEEP JAKE SAFE.” Was Andy’s last words. Jake was in tears.  
Christie made it to the top and hugged Jake  
“DADDY.” Jake cried.  
Amanda looked at Christie with a question.  
Christie shook her head no. She had tears running down her face.  
“We have to get down.” Amanda said.  
“How?” Christie asked. “Even if we get down, those Deadies will get us.”  
Amanda looked around and got an idea, she took one end of the paracord and wrapped it around the chimney. “Hang on to this end.”  
Christie took the end.  
“I’m going to need you to repel me down.” Amanda said.  
“What about the deadies?” Christie asked.  
“I’ll deal with the deadies, hurry, we don’t have much time.” Amanda said.  
Christie did as she was told, she repelled Amanda down. When Amanda was close enough to the ground she kicked some of the Deadies out of the way and then stabbed them in the head with the knife. She looked inside the cabin, there were a ton of deadies in there, she could vaguely see the remains of what was left of Andy. She closed the door as best as she could to try to keep the deadies inside and to keep the sight away from Jake when he came down.  
“Christie put Jake on your back.” Amanda ordered.  
Christie did as she was told.  
“Now do what I did, repel down, I will keep the rope steady.” Amanda said.  
Christie looked nervous.  
“Trust me.” Amanda said, “And hurry.”  
Christie did as she was told again and she was repelled down the cabin with Jake on her back.  
Once everybody was down. Amanda got the rope back and wrapped it up, she didn’t have time to braid it back into a bracelet. They were in a hurry.   
Most of the Deadies were in the house. Amanda took a pack of matches and lit them up. These Deadies were going to burn.  
She set the cabin on fire and the three of them ran.  
They didn’t stop until they were out of the woods.  
They collapsed and started crying. The girls hugged Jake tight, he just lost his father.   
“Come on, we have to keep moving.” Amanda said wiping her tears away.  
“Where?” Christie asked.  
“I don’t know, Atlanta is fourteen miles away. But since it’s a big city, it would be crawling with Deadies.” Amanda said.  
“What about Fort Benning? Maybe there are people there, maybe the military are there.” Christie said.  
“The military is what shot people.” Amanda said.  
“Maybe they changed. What do we have to lose?” Christie asked.  
Amanda didn’t want to answer that.


	10. Chapter 10

They traveled as far as they could that night before it got dark, they slept in a tree and tied themselves with the paracord. Jake was crying that night.   
“Andy gave me this before I went up the chimney.” Christie said giving the Pocket Hunter back to Amanda.  
Amanda didn’t say anything, she just put it in her Pocket Hunter Sheath.  
The next day they got an early start. Christie held Jake who was still sleeping Amanda had her crossbow ready.   
At about 9:00 in the morning, they traveled for two hours, they traveled three miles in two hours. There were a lot of vehicles on the road.   
“Lets see if we can find something to eat or drink.” Christie suggested.  
They went through the vehicles. Didn’t find anything to eat, found some empty water bottles and Amanda put the empties on her carabineer bottle holders. Christie put some in her pack. After a while of searching, they found a water truck with some of the bottles empty of water, but some were full.  
The three were happy to find water. They opened one of the bottles of water up and filled up their empty containers and drank their fill.  
“We have to keep going.” Amanda said.  
“Amanda, Christie, Deadies are coming.” Jake said.  
Amanda and Christie looked and saw a lot of Deadies, they didn’t have time to climb a tree to get away from them.  
“Hurry, under the car.” Amanda said.  
Christie and Amanda had their knives out, everybody’s hearts were beating fast.  
After a few minutes, the last of the Deadies walked past.  
They waited a few minutes just in case, they didn’t hear anything.  
“Ok, lets get up… quietly.” Amanda said.  
They slowly got out from under the vehicle. That was a big mistake. There were fifteen more Deadies and they saw them.  
Christie picked Jake up and the three started running towards the woods, they had to evade these Deadies.   
“Can’t we fight them?” Christie asked.  
“There’s too many of them, we’re not in a safe spot to fight them.” Amanda said.  
They ran into a stream of water and found a little cave. They hid in there.   
They watched the deadies jump into the water and splash away from them.  
They waited for a while just to make sure they would be out of hearing range, they slowly got out of the water.  
“Now what?” Christie asked.  
Amanda sighed, they were running low on supplies. “We need to go back to the cars.” Amanda said.  
“But the Deadies.” Christie said.  
“Are gone. We need to get warmer clothing. Our clothes are wet, if we don’t get warm we could get sick tonight, then we’d be in trouble.” Amanda said.  
Christie sighed, that made sense.  
“What if we can’t find warmer clothing?” Christie asked.   
Amanda shrugged, “At least we’ll have a comfortable place to sleep tonight and we might be able to find at least dry clothing.”   
They hurried back to where they saw the water truck. They found a car with suitcases and clothes thrown everywhere. They looked through it, found a couple blankets and two men sized shirts, one was a black and white flannel, the other was a blue thermal. The girls put the shirts on, Amanda put the flannel on over her t-shirt then took her t-shirt off and pulled it through the flannel then put her vest back on and her jacket. Christie put the thermal on over her t-shirt, then took her t-shirt off without taking the thermal off then put her jacket on. They tied their T-shirts to their waists to air them out.  
They helped Jake with his wet T-shirt and put his sweatshirt that Andy packed for him on. Then put his jacket back on. They looked for pants to wear, they couldn’t find any that would benefit them.  
They looked for more useful items, they walked down the road further and saw a car that had some sort of writing on it but it was hard to see what was written.  
Christie and Jake began yawning. There wasn’t a whole lot of daylight left.   
“We’ll stay here tonight and continue tomorrow.” Amanda said.  
They all got into the car, made a little tent with the blankets so any Deadies that came by wouldn’t be able to see them if they were moving in their sleep. It also made the car warmer.  
The next morning, Amanda woke up to the motor of a motorcycle. Her heart started to pound, what if they were bad men?  
Christie and Jake were awake too.  
Amanda put her finger to her lips. She cautiously peaked out from under the blanket and saw a group of men on motorcycles, they looked like bad men.  
“Stay very quiet, don’t move.” Amanda whispered.  
They were barely breathing, waiting for the men to leave.   
Finally, what seemed like an hour, the men drove away on their motorcycles.  
The three of them waited for another fifteen minutes before getting out of their hiding spot.  
They packed up.  
“That was close.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded.  
“Now what?” Christie asked.  
“We keep moving, Fort Benning, seems like the safest place. Hopefully they won’t shoot at us.” Amanda said.  
They continued their journey to Fort Benning. They had to stop and wait for Deadies to go by. They killed a handful of Deadies too.   
They were close to Fort Benning, they could see the buildings. But to their horror, they also saw hundreds if not thousands of Deadies, most were wearing Military uniforms.  
The three of them gasped and they ran the other direction hoping none of the Deadies spotted them.  
They ran until they couldn’t run anymore.  
“Where do we go now?” Christie asked.  
Amanda shook her head, “I don’t know.”  
They kept walking farther away from Fort Benning.  
For a few days they were sleeping in trees tied with paracord, it seemed like the only safe thing to do. The Deadies never knew they were there.   
They kept walking, they didn’t know where to go. Jake kept complaining he was tired, he was hungry, his feet hurt, he missed his dad, he missed his mom. He was five years old and he was getting annoying.  
They kept on walking until dark. They were about to climb a tree but they saw a wall, there were men on the other side of the wall and they had weapons.  
“What is that?” Christie asked.  
“I don’t know, but I’m not risking being shot at tonight.” Amanda said.  
“What if it’s safe?” Jake asked.  
“It will be safe tomorrow.” Amanda said. “Now come on, up the tree.”   
They all slept in the tree that night, wishing, hoping and praying that wall will be a sanctuary.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is not for the weak stomach. There is talk of rape and blood and something that Amanda does that would make Merle and Daryl cringe if they ever found out.

The next morning the three of them woke to guns clicking.  
There were three men with hand guns, all three of them were pointed at them.  
“Come down from that tree with your hands up.” A man said.  
“What do we do?” Christie asked scared.  
“Um, do as we’re told and pray to God they don’t hurt us.” Amanda said, trying to keep calm but she was very scared.  
Jake was crying.  
“Now.” The man ordered, “Or we’re coming up there after you.”  
“Ok, ok, we’re coming. Please… don’t shoot.” Amanda said and she was untying them and was about ready to grab her crossbow from where she put it.  
“Leave that there.” The man ordered.  
Amanda did as she was told.  
The three of them slowly climbed down from the tree. Jake was piggy backing from Christie’s back.  
They got down to the ground.  
“Hands where I can see them.” The man ordered.  
The three of them put their hands up. The man began searching them for weapons, took Amanda’s knife and arrows, took Christie’s knife and arrows. Their bags were removed and searched for weapons, when all knives were taken out, their bags were tossed to the side.  
“You’re not going to need those anymore.” The man said with an evil grin.  
To Amanda’s relief, the man neglected to check her vest pocket. When she saw no one was looking at her for the moment. She discreetly took out her pepper spray, her cat keychain and her pocket knife.  
Another man climbed the tree to retrieve Amanda’s crossbow.  
“Of course, a sissy pink crossbow for a sissy.” The man said climbing down the tree.  
“Please, we don’t mean any harm, we were just sleeping in a tree.” Christie said.  
“Have either of you been bit?” A man asked.  
“No.” Amanda said shaking her head.  
“Well we will be the judge of that, come on.” The man said.  
They roughly pushed the girls and Jake walking into the woods.  
“Where are you taking us?” Christie asked after a few minutes, she was scared.  
“We need more bitches like you to serve us.” The man said with a wicked grin.  
“But we don’t need sniveling little babies.” A man said and he threw Jake onto the ground and aimed his gun at him.  
“NO!” Amanda and Christie yelled.  
Amanda used the pepper spray at the man who had a gun aimed on her and he forgot he had a gun and went to shield his eyes. She jabbed the cat keychain ears in the man’s throat, he was going to be dead in a bit. She aimed her pocket knife at the man who aimed his gun at Jake and threw it at his throat like a dart. He dodged the attack. Amanda picked up the discarded gun and shot the man in the head who was going to shoot Jake. He was dead. She aimed the gun at the man who to Amanda’s horror, was holding his gun to Christie’s head.  
“Don’t even think about it.” The man said with an evil grin.  
Christie looked so scared.  
“Let her go.” Amanda seethed.  
“No, she’s my hostage. You’re going to let me go, or I’m going to blow her fucking head off.” The man threatened.  
“Amanda.” Christie whimpered.  
Amanda didn’t know what to do. The man had the gun against Christie’s temple. If she shot the man in the head, he could easily still shoot her.  
Amanda had a defeated look on her face.  
Christie was crying. The man was laughing.  
“You and I are going to have fun bitch.” The man said and was pulling Christie away from Amanda and Jake.  
“Amanda.” Christie cried.  
“Amanda what are we going to do?” Jake asked.  
Amanda wiped the tears from her eyes. “We are going to get Christie back.”  
“How?” Jake asked. “They’re gone.”  
“We must hurry.” Amanda said. “Help me get the supplies.”  
“But Christie and that man will be too far away to catch them.” Jake said.  
“No they won’t, the man won’t do anything to Christie until he knows he’s far away from us where we wouldn’t find them. But what he doesn’t know we will use to our advantage, now hurry with the supplies.”  
Amanda and Jake hurried and got the two bags and Amanda’s crossbow. Amanda grabbed the guns and the cases and grabbed what was left of the ammo, there wasn’t much left off of the dead men, she also checked to see what else they had on them that would be useful. They each had a baggie of jerky. She took the two baggies of jerky and put it in her bag.  
She unloaded one of the hand guns and put it in her bag, she made sure one was fully loaded and put the safety on and put the hand guns case on her belt next to her knife sheath.  
Jake found Amanda’s pocket knife and Amanda put it back in her pocket along with her pepper spray and cat keychain after disinfecting it.  
It took them five minutes to get everything packed up. Amanda tried lightening the backpack as much as she could so Jake could carry it.  
They hurried after the horrible man and Christie.  
“How do you know where they went?” Jake asked.  
“By tracking. They left footprints in the dirt.” Amanda said, “Look here, you can see two sets of footprints. And these ones are Christie’s she is struggling.”  
“Poor Christie.” Jake said with a frown.  
They were getting closer to Christie and the man. They could hear them.  
Amanda knew what needed to be done was too dangerous for Jake. She needed to keep him safe. She knew he would argue. She had to think of some way that he would stay behind.  
“Ok, Jake, I need you to climb this tree and stay up there.” Amanda said.  
“I want to help.” Jake said.  
“You are helping, by staying safe and… guarding our packs. I can’t fight him with a heavy pack, but I don’t want to lose our supplies.” Amanda said. “I’m giving you an important job. Can you do this for me? Please?”  
Jake nodded and started climbing the tree.  
“Good boy.” Amanda said and handed Jake her pack.  
“What if you don’t come back?” Jake asked.  
“Don’t think like that, Christie and I will come back.” Amanda said.  
She left Jake with the packs, she just had the gun, her knives, her pocket kit and her crossbow. That man messed with the wrong people.  
She could hear Christie trying to fight him off. He was laughing while trying to get her clothes off.  
“You just wait, Amanda’s going to come find us and kill you.” Christie threatened.  
“We’re deep into the woods. She’s never going to find us, now shut up and stop fighting bitch.” The man said and slapped Christie across the face.  
Christie was crying.  
The man got Christie’s hands tied behind her and was taking her clothes off.  
Once Christie was naked, he began taking his clothes off.  
Amanda loaded her crossbow and found the perfect shot. When he was bending down to take his pants off, she aimed and shot the son of a bitch in the ass.  
The man yelled in pain. “WHAT THE FUCK!” He pulled the arrow out of his ass. He bent over to retrieve his gun when another arrow shot him in the leg, he fell over in pain and agony.  
He reached for his gun, but another arrow shot him in the arm and pinned his arm down. He was in so much pain.  
“She’s toying with you, you angered her.” Christie spat.  
“SHOW YOURSELF YOU BITCH.” The man seethed.  
“My pleasure.” Amanda said and walked out of where she was hiding. She had her knife in her hand. “You messed with the wrong people.”  
Amanda grabbed her arrows and stabbed an arrow in the man’s other leg and stabbed another arrow in his arm. He was crying in agony and was spread eagled.  
Amanda knew he couldn’t get out of there. She undid Christie’s bindings.  
“Where’s Jake?” Christie asked once she was getting dressed.  
“He’s safe.” Amanda said.  
“What are we going to do with him?” Christie asked.  
“I’m leaving that up to you. You’re the one who had the gun at your head, was kidnapped and almost raped.” Amanda said.  
“I’m really sick of almost being a rape victim, the second time.” Christie said with tears running down her face. “We’re going to kill him right?”  
Amanda nodded.  
“Then do it. Kill him.” Christie seethed.  
“You don’t want to kill him yourself?” Amanda asked.  
Christie shook her head no. “I just want to get as far away from him as possible.”  
Amanda nodded in understanding. “Just keep walking that way. Jake is in a tree where he can’t see us. I’ll catch up. I need to get my arrows out of him.”  
Christie nodded.  
The whole time the girls were talking, the man was yelling cuss words.  
Once she saw Christie was out of site. Amanda smiled evilly at the man, stuffed one of his stinky socks in his mouth so he couldn’t say anymore cuss words and took out her knife.  
“Kidnapping and rape is very bad. They are both of my pet peeves.” Amanda said, she squatted down next to the man’s stomach and started tracing circles around his belly button with the tip of her knife gently, not hard enough to draw blood. “The last time Christie and I were in a situation like this, they were killed fast.”  
Amanda traced circles around the man’s nipples not drawing blood.  
“You have been bleeding for a few minutes now. Deadies might show up, the three of us need to get out of here quick before they do. I’ll make this fast too. But… I want to do something. I think before you die… you need to learn a lesson. You will never be able to kidnap and rape once I’m through with you because you’ll be dead… but… a lesson still needs to be learned.” Amanda said. “This is going to hurt you a lot more than it’s going to hurt me.”  
She lifted up his ball sack and looked at the fear in the man’s eyes. For a moment, she almost felt pity… but the moment past fast. Without thinking about it again, she cut off his ball sack. He was screaming but it was muffled by the sock.  
Next she lifted the bloody penis and cut that off as well. There were more screams muffled by the sock.  
“Hmm, lesson learned.” Amanda said showing him his penis and balls in her hand.  
She let him writhe in agony for about two minutes before plunging the knife into his brain.  
She pulled out her arrows and wiped them off of the man’s discarded shirt and wiped her hands off of blood as well. Then she used the hand sanitizer and sanitized her hands and her weapons. She grabbed whatever the man had on him that would be useful. He too had a baggie of jerky, a gun and ammo. Then she hurried to catch up with Christie and Jake.  
Before she reached them, she realized what she just did. It has only been a year since everything turned upside down. She used to be a college student with a job and a loving mother and brothers. She used to have friends and did archery for sport as well as hunting for sport, now she used her crossbow for life or death. She just killed three men today. She has killed five men in a year’s time. She felt like she was going to be sick. She ended up dry heaving and that is how Christie and Jake found her.  
“Amanda, are you ok?” Jake asked putting a hand on her back while she was bent over.  
Amanda dry heaved for a few more minutes. Then she was just shaky.  
“Are you ok?” Christie asked.  
Amanda nodded.  
Christie handed Amanda the bottle of water. “Take little sips.”  
Amanda took little sips. “Killing men is not easy.” She rasped.  
“They were rapists and were going to kill us.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded, “I know… it’s still not easy.”  
“What do we do now?” Jake asked.  
“We could try to see what is behind that wall.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded, “I hope it’s safe. We need to get out of here. All the blood from the men and the shooting of the guns will certainly draw deadies.  
The three of them hurried towards where they saw the wall hoping it was a sanctuary.  
It was dark by the time they got to the wall. They didn’t go inside. All they heard was screaming and panic and gun shots.  
“It sounds like the town is being overrun.” Amanda said.  
“What do we do?” Jake asked.  
“It sounds too dangerous, we might be shot at if we go inside, we don’t know what kind of people are behind that wall, they might even be friends with the three we just killed.” Amanda said.  
“But he was taking me into the woods.” Christie said.  
“I don’t want to risk it.” Amanda said.  
“So where do we go?” Jake asked.  
“Into the woods. It’s our best cover.” Amanda said. “But away from the dead men that were just killed.”  
“It’s dark out, we can’t see where we’re going.” Christie said.  
Amanda sighed and unraveled the paracord. “Hang on to this. Both of you. Jake you’re in the middle.”  
They hung onto the paracord so they wouldn’t get lost.  
Amanda took out a little flashlight and fastened it to her crossbow so she could see where she was walking but made sure it wasn’t bright enough to draw attention to anybody or anything.  
After walking for an hour they found a good spot to rest for the night.  
The three of them climbed the tree. They tied themselves in the tree and Amanda took out one of the baggies of jerky. None of them had anything to eat that day. They were very hungry. There was six sticks of jerky in the baggie. Amanda gave everybody one stick. They were going to save the rest. Who knew how long it would be when they would find more food.  
The next morning they got an early start. They needed to hunt and gather food. All they had left was the jerky, some candy and three granola bars. They also needed to find a water source.  
They walked for two hours before spotting any meat. It was a squirrel. It took Amanda two shots with her crossbow to kill it.  
She pierced the squirrel with a branch so they could walk with it.  
They kept on walking. They smelled water.  
“We’re close to Yellow Jacket Creek.” Amanda said with a smile.  
They walked towards the Creek. When they got there though, they’re hearts sank. They saw somebody kick a Deadie over a bridge and the dead Deadie made a splash in the water. That wasn’t the first Deadie. There were more Deadies in the water.  
“Damn it.” Amanda cussed.  
“Maybe if we boil the water it will be ok.” Christie suggested. She wasn’t going to scold Amanda for the language.  
“It won’t be ok. It’s contaminated by Deadies.” Amanda said.  
“So what do we do now?” Christie asked.  
Amanda sighed, “Gather up all of the cattails we can find. And lets be on our way.  
“What are we going to do about water?” Christie asked.  
“We’ll keep going. We’ll find a better water source.” Amanda said.  
They walked up towards the bridge they saw the men kill the deadies on. They were searching for anything that could be useful for them. They were going to be quiet and make sure those men were gone.  
The men were gone and there were some abandoned vehicles.  
The three of them looked through the vehicles, they found some old magazines scattered, they found a dead deadie wearing shin guards.  
Amanda grabbed those.  
“Why did you grab those?” Christie asked.  
“These will help against Deadie bites.” Amanda said.  
“Well it didn’t help that Deadie.” Christie said.  
“He was shot in the chest.” Amanda said.  
They searched more and found a few more articles of clothing. Found a pair of jeans that would fit Jake, found a couple shirts that would fit the girls.  
A few days have passed, Amanda and Christie had to kill twenty Deadies in those days, and they didn’t see any more water sources that didn’t look contaminated. They were relying on tying baggies on tree branches, putting a rock at the bottom of the baggie and collecting water from the tree. Then poking a hole in the baggie to trickle the water into their water bottles. The water tasted funny doing that, but at least it was drinkable.  
They made soup out of everything they ate using the Stanley Cooker so they would get all the nutrients from everything they found.  
They finished off the cattails, the granola bars and two baggies of jerky. They were down to three sticks of jerky, a baggie of dandelions, a baggie of clovers, green tea and candy.  
They continued walking when their water bottles were full.  
One day when they were looking for another tree to stay for the night. Which by the way they were getting really tired of sleeping in trees, but it was the safest place to sleep. Jake spotted a big building with a fence busted through.  
“That looks promising.” Christie said.  
“There’s probably a bunch of Deadie inmates in there.” Amanda said.  
“But we can kill them and there will be shelter and probably food and water and a bed.” Christie said.  
Amanda sighed, “Tomorrow. We need to sleep. Get our strength and be refreshed. It’s going to be dark in there.”  
The other two agreed and once again, they climbed a tree, tied themselves down to it and fell asleep. All were hoping by this time tomorrow they will be in a bed.  
The next morning bright and early, they ate their last bit of Jerky and ate some candy and drank some green tea. They needed as much energy as they could get, the jerky was protein, the green tea had antioxidants and caffeine, the candy was for moral and energy.  
Using the paracord and cutting it where needed. Amanda wrapped the magazines they found around Jake’s arms. She then put his jacket on him and zipped it up.  
“This will protect your upper body from Deadie’s.” Amanda said.  
She then put a pair of her socks on Jake’s feet so they would go past his shins and then put the shin guards on Jake’s shins and wrapped around most of his leg. She then had him put his jeans they found and the shin guards.  
“This will protect your legs from getting bit, Deadies have a hard time biting through denim. This will be one of the few times I am allowing denim. Denim is horrible if it gets wet.”  
“But you wear a jean vest all the time.” Jake said.  
“I know. But it’s a vest, it will dry faster and won’t make me that uncomfortable. I can easily take it off.” Amanda said.  
Christie and Amanda put their shin and arm guards on. They all had their weapons ready. Christie and Jake had the Pocket Hunters, Christie had a knife, Amanda had the crossbow with the flashlight, and a knife and the loaded pistol.  
They kept Jake in the middle of them. It looked like a lot of the Deadies were dead. Like somebody has been here before and killed a lot of deadies.  
They continued inside. It was so good just to be inside a building.  
They were ambushed by three Deadies, they were easily killed with the knives.  
“We will only use the gun as a last resort. The noise of a gun will make a lot of noise and bring more Deadies.” Amanda said.  
Christie agreed.  
They continued down the labyrinth looking for a safe place to stay.  
They killed fifteen more deadies throughout the labyrinth.  
“Are we lost?” Jake asked.  
Amanda didn’t have an answer which worried Christie and Jake.  
They continued onwards through the prison and found white arrows.  
“Looks like somebody’s been here, look.” Amanda said.  
They saw the arrows.  
“But what if they’re bad?” Christie asked. “We are in a prison.”  
Amanda sighed, “That’s a good point. Maybe we should go back.”  
“I don’t want to sleep in a tree again, I’m tired and hungry, I wanna sleep in a bed.” Jake whined.  
“It’s up to you Christie, what do you suggest?” Amanda asked.  
Christie sighed, “I don’t know, are chances surviving out there is dwindling, but what if they’re rapists in here?”  
“Then we’ll take them out.” Amanda said.  
Christie still looked worried.  
“Well?” Amanda asked.  
“If we can make a home here, there will most likely be food and a bed.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded.  
“And maybe a shower.” Christie said.  
“A shower sounds amazing right now.” Amanda said.  
Christie nodded.  
“So do we keep going and look for a place to lay our heads tonight?” Amanda asked.  
Christie and Jake smiled and nodded, “Yes.”  
Amanda smiled and they kept going walking through the labyrinth following the arrows.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family Reunion. :)

After a while and killing more deadies that were in their way. They saw daylight. They were happy they saw daylight and they ran towards it only to be stopped by a locked barred door.  
They tried unlocking the door, they tried shaking it loose, but it wouldn’t budge, the commotion alerted everybody who was in the prison.  
A kid who looked to be about eleven wearing a sheriff’s hat unlocked one door walked through the room and pointed a gun at the three.  
“Um, hello. Are your parents here somewhere? We didn’t realize people were here.” Amanda said.  
“We’re not taking people in.” The boy said.  
“Please can we just stay the night? We’ve been sleeping in trees for weeks.” Christie said.  
“I’m sorry, you’ll have to leave.” The boy said.  
“But I wanna sleep in a bed.” Jake whined.  
The boy was surprised to see a little boy with them.  
“Please? Just for today, then we’ll be out of your hair tomorrow.” Amanda said with a sigh she had to think of where else to go.  
“Who else is with you?” The boy asked.  
“It’s just us three.” Amanda said. “Please, we mean you no harm.”  
The boy thought about it for a minute, “I have to go ask the others. It’s not just my decision.”  
The boy left to go talk to the others.  
The boy came back with three people. An oriental looking man, a black woman and to Amanda’s surprise and delight, her brother Merle.  
“Holy Shit. I’m seeing a ghost.” Merle said.  
“Merle. Oh my god. Merle.” Amanda was excited.  
“You know her?” The Oriental man asked.  
“Course I do, she’s my little sister.” Merle said. “Let them through.”  
“You are not in a position to give orders.” The oriental man snapped.  
“She’s my little sister, she’s Daryl’s little sister too.” Merle said.  
The boy looked up at the Oriental man and the man nodded. He must be in charge.  
The boy unlocked the door.  
Amanda gave Christie the crossbow and Amanda ran and hugged her brother.  
“Oh I missed you so much.” Amanda said.  
“Now now, none of that sissy hugging stuff. Where have you been? Daryl and I thought you were dead. We went lookin for ya.” Merle said. “When we got to your house, it was a mess.”  
Amanda nodded and frowned, “It was broken into before I got home looking for my mom… she turned into a Deadie at the hotel.”  
“Awe, I’m so sorry about that.” Merle said with a frown. “I’m glad you’re ok. Who are your friends?”  
“This is Christie, and this is Jake.” Amanda said.  
“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Dixon. Amanda told me a lot about you and your brother.” Christie said.  
“Mr. Dixon was our father, I’m Merle. It’s nice to meet ya young lady. I hope all my little sister said about me was good.” Merle said.  
“Um, it was… she said you and your brother taught her everything she knows.” Christie said.  
“None of us would be here if they didn’t.” Amanda said. “What happened to your hand?”  
“I had to cut my hand off.” Merle said, “I was handcuffed to a roof and the key was dropped in a pipe.”  
“That’s horrible.” Amanda gasped.  
“So I cut my hand off and rigged this little baby up.” Merle said.  
“You look like Captain Hook from Peter Pan.” Jake said with a giggle.  
“I’m cooler then Captain Hook though.” Merle said with a grin. “Right?”  
Amanda rolled her eyes, “Where’s Daryl?”  
“Daryl is with the rest of our group.” The Oriental man said.  
“We could use your help little sister.” Merle said.  
“That’s not up for us to decide, that is Rick’s decision if he lets them stay or not.” The oriental man said.  
“But she’s family.” Merle said.  
“She’s your family, she’s not our family.” The Oriental man said.  
“She’s Daryl’s family too.” Merle said.  
“We will wait until Rick and the others get back.” The Oriental man said.  
Merle was about to say something.  
“It’s ok Merle, we can wait.” Amanda said.  
“Mandy’s just like me and Daryl, we taught her everything she knows. She would be an asset.” Merle said.  
“Well if she’s anything like you, I wouldn’t want her here.” The Oriental man said.  
Merle glared at the man. “Do not talk about my sister like that. I had to do what I had to do.”  
“That’s just how I feel. But it’s not up to me. We will wait until Rick and the others get back.” The Oriental man said again.  
Amanda had a feeling this Oriental man didn’t like Merle. She had a feeling not a whole lot of people liked him.  
They were locked in the room, but they were safe. Locked doors on both ends, they were in a room where there was food and water.  
“Amanda, are we going to be able to sleep in a bed tonight?” Jake asked.  
“I don’t know, if we have to spend the night in this room, I will make you a nice comfortable bed.” Amanda said.  
Jake nodded, that was ok.  
Christie helped Jake out of the jeans and shin guards and the too big socks, she then let him put the jeans back on.  
“We’re safe for now, he’s comfortable wearing jeans.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded, it was fine.  
Their leader Rick and the others returned about two hours later. Daryl was very surprised to see Amanda.  
“Mandy.” Daryl cried and hugged his little sister.  
“Daryl.” Amanda cried with excitement.  
“She just showed up two hours ago.” Merle said.  
“We thought you were dead.” Daryl said.  
“You should know better than that, my big brothers should have faith in their sister.” Amanda said with a grin.  
“We looked everywhere.” Daryl said.  
“We thought you would have gone to the house or the cabin.” Merle said.  
“I did. We did… Christie and I did, I found her on the road and we walked to the house, you weren’t there, grabbed the shin and arm guards and my clothes… about all that was left in the house. Spent the night.” Amanda said.  
“Bad men entered the house. Amanda… um… took care of them.” Christie said.  
“That’s our little sister.” Merle said proudly.  
“We then walked to the cabin.” Amanda said.  
“What happened to your car?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda sighed, “It was stolen. Somebody hotwired it… I don’t want to talk about it… anyway, we walked to the cabin and stayed there for the winter, we met Jake and his father. Sadly the cabin was overrun by deadies once winter was over… Jake’s dad… didn’t make it.”  
Jake was about ready to start crying thinking about his dad.  
“We’ve been sleeping in trees ever since.” Christie said.  
“Hmm, well now you three are safe here.” Merle said.  
“Hold on, I never said they can stay.” Rick said.  
“Come on Rick, Mandy’s our sister, she’s blood.” Daryl said.  
“She’s not my blood.” Rick said.  
“Oh, not this again.” Daryl said with an annoyed sigh. “It’s the same with Mandy as it is with Merle, if you make her leave, then Merle and I are leaving.”  
Rick looked at Daryl.  
“Your choice.” Daryl said.  
Rick sighed, “Ok, fine, they can stay… Now I want to talk to you all about something… I met this Governor…We sat for a long while.”  
“Just the two of ya?” Merle asked.  
Rick nodded.  
“Should have gone when we had the chance bro.” Merle said to the oriental man.  
“He wants the prison.” Rick said, “He wants us gone… dead… he wants us dead… for what we did to Woodbury… We’re going to war.”  
Rick went outside. Daryl followed.  
Everybody looked at each other and went their separate ways.  
“So what happened in Woodbury?” Christie asked. “Why are we going to war with them?”  
Merle and Daryl explained all that happened in the town called Woodbury.  
“Only a monster would have two brothers face each other in a death match.” Amanda spat.  
“But we escaped fine.” Merle said.  
“So… do we get to sleep in a real bed tonight?” Jake asked.  
“Only if you say I’m cooler than Captain Hook.” Merle said with a grin.  
“You’re cooler than Captain Hook.” Jake said with a grin.  
Merle chuckled. “Girl, why don’t you and this big boy here go find yourselves a cell, I’d like to catch up with my little sister a bit.”  
Christie looked at Amanda.  
Amanda smiled and handed Christie her pack and Crossbow.  
Christie smiled and nodded.  
Merle and Amanda watched as Christie and Jake left to find a cell.  
“Now I know you’re good with pretty much every weapon you’re given, but what about them? Will they be an asset to this war Rick said we’re gonna have?” Merle asked.  
Amanda sighed, “They haven’t had much experience with guns. We’ve stayed alive killing Deadies with my crossbow, and knives and Pocket Hunters. Christie is good with a pocket hunter and knife. She hasn’t had much practice with a crossbow. Jake is just learning how to aim with the pocket hunter using rocks.”  
Merle nodded. “Well I guess we’ll just have to give Christie a crash course in shooting.”  
“Oh, speaking of guns. We picked up three handguns with some ammo. Maybe they can be of use.” Amanda said showing Merle one of the guns that was on her belt.  
“Every gun will be of use.” Merle said.  
“I’ll go find where Christie went and get the other guns.” Amanda said.  
Amanda went to go find the cell Christie and Jake found. The cell was on the second floor of the Cell block. It had a bunk bed, a sink and a toilet. It wasn’t much but at least it was clean and there were beds.  
Amanda found Jake asleep in one of the beds.  
“He’s had a busy day.” Christie said.  
Amanda smiled and nodded and began searching her bag for the guns.  
“What are you doing with those?” Christie asked.  
“I’m going to give them to the others. We’re part of their group now. All of the guns are downstairs.” Amanda said.  
Christie nodded.  
The two girls took the guns and ammo downstairs and contributed them to the collection of guns. They were introduced to everybody. The Oriental man’s name is Glenn, he is dating the woman Maggie who looks to be a little older than Amanda. Maggie has a younger sister Beth who looks to be Christie’s age or a little older. Carl was the boy’s name and he is Rick’s son as well as the baby who is Judith. The girls stopped Jake from asking where the mother was. Carol isn’t the mother but used to be a mother. She babysits the baby a lot. Michonne is a black woman who looks like she doesn’t speak much but she is amazing with a sword. Hershel used to be a farmer and he’s the father of Maggie and Beth. He was bitten on his leg and it was amputated.


	13. Chapter 13

The girls helped loading the magazines with bullets for the war. Hershel and Daryl were outside talking to Rick. They could hear Merle ripping up a mattress.  
“What is Merle doing?” Christie asked.  
Amanda rolled her eyes and sighed. “He’s looking for drugs, remember when I told you the best drugs he’s ever found was in a mattress?”  
Christie nodded.  
They watched Rick come back inside and go upstairs to talk to Merle.  
“Weapons won’t be enough for the Governor. We should set up defenses. Put barbed wire on the ground at the gate for when their trucks and tanks come to us.” Michonne said.  
“Tanks?” Amanda asked surprised.  
Michonne nodded.  
Everybody went outside and told Daryl and Hershel what to do. Daryl thought that was a very good idea.  
They set up a plan. Hershel would drive the truck they were going to use. Daryl and Glenn would get the barbed wire set up. Maggie, Beth, Carl, and Christie will distract the Walkers. Michonne and Amanda will kill any walkers that would be getting too close to Daryl and Glenn.  
They put the plan into action. Maggie, Beth, Carl and Christie made as much noise to distract the walkers as possible. The other five got in a truck to get the barbed wire. While Daryl and Glenn were cutting it, Michonne and Amanda killed the Walkers.   
“Come on, lets go.” Daryl said once he and Glenn were finished.  
They women hurried back into the truck and Hershel drove back towards the Walker free living area.  
Rick was watching them and he opened the gate for them. He didn’t know what was going on at that moment.  
“Thought it would be a good idea to put barbed wire at the gates to blow their tires out.” Glenn said.  
“That’s a good idea.” Rick said.  
“It was Michonne’s.” Daryl said.  
“We don’t have to win. We just have to make their getting at us more trouble than it’s worth.” Michonne said.  
The others came back from distracting the Walkers.  
Everybody went their separate ways. Christie and Amanda went to go wake Jake up. The others were setting up different defenses or preparing the guns.  
Jake was awake and he had a frown on his face.  
“What’s wrong Jake?” Amanda asked.  
“I heard Rick and your brother… um Captain Hook.” Jake said.  
“Merle?” Amanda asked.  
Jake nodded.  
“What about?” Christie asked.  
“They’re gonna do something and I think it’s bad.” Jake said.  
“It’s a war sweetie, Rick explained we’re going to war.” Christie said.  
Jake shook his head, “He told Captain Hook… Um… Merle… he needs his help to give Michelle to the Government.  
“Give Michonne to the Government? What Government? Oh you mean Governor.” Christie said.  
Jake nodded, “And Dale and Hershey knows too.”   
“Dale and Hershey?” Christie asked.  
“Daryl and Hershel?” Amanda asked.  
Jake nodded.  
Amanda sighed, “Ok, I’m going to talk to my brothers. Don’t talk to anybody about this.”  
“Amanda this is serious.” Christie said worried.  
“I know, that’s why I’m going to talk to my brothers.” Amanda said.  
“Where are they?” Christie asked.  
Amanda shrugged, “Merle’s probably looking for a drink or drugs. Daryl’s probably doing something more productive.”  
Amanda went searching for her brothers. She found Glenn outside.  
“Um, have you seen Daryl or Merle anywhere?” Amanda asked. “I need to talk to them.”  
“Daryl is looking for Merle. He headed that way.” Glenn said pointing in the direction.  
“Ok, thanks.” Amanda said.  
She heard Merle and Daryl talking in the boiler room.  
Amanda walked in the boiler room.  
“I’ve been looking for the two of you.” Amanda said.  
“Well you found us.” Daryl said. “What’s wrong?”  
“I heard what you are planning to do.” Amanda said.  
“Did Rick tell you?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda shook her head no.  
“Hershel?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda shook her head no.  
“I’m done playing guessing games.” Daryl said.  
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Jake wasn’t asleep when Rick told Merle.”  
“Doesn’t he know better not to listen to other people’s conversations?” Merle asked.  
“He’s six.” Amanda said, “And I’m glad I know. What you guys are planning is not right.”  
“Maybe, but it has to be done.” Merle said.  
“Why?” Amanda asked.  
“If she’s handed over, then we will not have a war.” Daryl said.  
“There’s only a chance the Governor is telling the truth.” Amanda said. “Michonne is an asset to this group. We can win the war if she’s on our team.”  
“Mandy you do not know how many people live in Woodbury. The Governor has 70 plus people at his disposal. He has tanks at his disposal, what do we have here? A grieving cop, an ex-farmer with one leg, a widow, two little boys. An Asian, three girls who recently learned how to shoot. Two survivalist women. Two survivalist men and a baby. Not necessarily an army.” Merle said.  
“But we have weapons and defenses and armor and Deadies and whatever the cops left here.” Amanda said.  
“It won’t be enough.” Merle said.  
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea.” Amanda said.  
“Mandy… I don’t like this plan either… But whatever Rick says goes.” Daryl said.  
“It’s still not right.” Amanda said.  
“Tough little sister, you need to grow up. Things are different now. Sometimes things have to be done that are wrong.” Merle said, he was looking cold, “People look at me like I’m the Devil. Grabbing up those two lovebirds like that.”  
“What are you talking about?” Amanda asked.  
“Didn’t anybody tell you? I tortured the Asian and his sweetheart was terrorized. It’s been over a year since you’ve seen me little sister, a lot has changed.” Merle said. “We are going to hand over Michonne to the Governor, he’s going to torture and terrorize her just like I did to the Asian. People do what they gotta do or they die. Maybe these people need somebody like me around, somebody to do their dirty work… the bad guy… I’m used to it now.”  
“This isn’t the real you.” Amanda said.  
“You don’t know the real me.” Merle said. “Not anymore… Get out of here you two.” He looked like he was going to tear up, that would be the last thing he wanted his siblings to see.  
Daryl and Amanda looked at each other and walked out of the Boiler room.  
“You cannot tell anybody what is going on.” Daryl said.  
Amanda sighed, “I know. It’s still not right, it will never be right.”  
Amanda was angry they were going to go through with this, she wanted to just take her knife and go kill some Deadies, but the deadies were going to make awesome but dangerous defenses for the war.   
She went off on her own to take a walk. She couldn’t look at her brother for even agreeing with Rick for this horrible thing they were going to do.  
After about fifteen minutes. She returned. She didn’t want to be mad at her brothers. She literally just found her brothers today. Her family was too precious to her to be mad at them.   
She found Daryl.  
“Are you ok?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda nodded and sighed, “I do not agree with any of this. But in order to keep Christie and Jake safe, I will help do what needs to be done. We live in a harsh world now. Things need to be done… I understand that… Sometimes we must do horrible things to survive. The three of us are the only family we have left, I don’t want to be mad at you and Merle anymore.”  
Daryl nodded and hugged his little sister.  
Rick came outside. “It’s off. We’ll take our chances.”  
“Not saying it was the wrong call. But this is definitely the right one.” Daryl said.  
Rick looked worried.  
“Yes.” Amanda cheered.  
“You knew?” Rick asked.  
Amanda nodded.  
“How? Know what? Doesn’t matter… I can’t find Merle and Michonne anywhere.” Rick said.  
Daryl and Amanda looked at each other, then at Rick.  
“Come on.” Daryl said.  
The three of them hurried to the boiler room.  
“He’s in here, he said he was looking for drugs.” Daryl said. “He said a lot of things actually.”  
“Like what?” Rick asked.  
“Said you were going to change your mind.” Daryl said. “Here we go.”  
Daryl saw a bag, “He took her here, they mixed it up.”  
“Damn it.” Rick cursed. “I’m going after them.”  
“No, you can’t track for shit.” Daryl said.  
“Then the both of us.” Rick said.  
“No.” Daryl said, “Just me. Plus when they come back here, you need to be ready… you’re family too.”  
Daryl walked out.  
Amanda ran after him.  
“Mandy go back.” Daryl said.  
“Not a chance. Two people are better than one if we run into Deadies.” Amanda said.  
“It might be dangerous, you don’t know the Governor.” Daryl said.  
“I’ve met my fair share of bastards trying to find you and Merle. I just found you two, I’m not losing the two of you again. The three of us are blood, we stick together. We can waste time arguing about this, or you and I can go find our older brother and get him to come to his senses… together.” Amanda said  
Daryl nodded reluctantly. “You used to do everything Merle and I said.”  
“That was a lifetime ago.” Amanda said with a sigh.  
They both had their crossbows loaded and ready.  
They hurried into the woods. They had to kill ten deadies while tracking Merle and Michonne down.  
They met up with Michonne, she stabbed a deadie head.  
“Hey, where’s our brother?” Amanda asked.  
“Did you kill him?” Daryl asked.  
“No, he let me go.” Michonne said.  
Without saying anything, Daryl and Amanda ran passed Michonne to go find their brother.  
They ran to an old abandoned farm.  
“This is where Rick and the Governor had their meeting.” Daryl whispered.  
They looked around, there were dead bodies everywhere and deadies eating the bodies.  
The siblings killed a couple deadies.   
They walked a little more and saw another deadie eating a body. This Deadie had a makeshift hand with a blade connected to it.  
Daryl and Amanda just stood there in shock. There was no way that was Merle, It must have been a different person with a makeshift hand with the same haircut. Sure.  
The Deadie stopped eating the dead body and looked up.  
To Daryl and Amanda’s relief, it wasn’t Merle, it actually was another person with a makeshift hand and it just looked like the same haircut.  
Daryl put an arrow through the Deadie’s head and they kept walking looking for their brother.  
The both of them killed a couple more Deadies. Daryl was sure Merle was around here somewhere.  
They looked inside a couple buildings and finally saw Merle, he was shot and he was missing two of his fingers on his hand. At least he was alive. He was leaning against a table.  
“Merle.” Daryl and Amanda said at the same time and ran to his aid.  
“What the hell are you two doing here?” Merle asked.  
“It’s a good thing we showed up. What happened?” Amanda asked.  
“The Governor.” Merle said.  
“I’m gonna kill him.” Daryl said.  
“I tried, he’s harder to kill than I thought.” Merle said.  
“Come on, let’s get you patched up and we’ll go back to the prison.” Amanda said.  
“I can’t go back.” Merle said.  
“Sure you can. Once we get that bullet out and patch you up.” Amanda said.  
“Not happening little sister.” Merle said.  
“Why?” Amanda asked.  
“Merle, we’ve taken bullets out before.” Daryl said.  
“If it was just the bullet and a couple missing fingers, maybe I’d go back. But I can’t. Not now.” Merle said.  
“Is it because of what the others think of you?” Amanda asked.  
“That’s the least on my mind.” Merle said.  
“Then what is it?” Daryl asked.  
Merle had a strange look on his face. “I was bit.”  
Daryl and Amanda couldn’t process that.  
“What?” Amanda asked.  
“I was bit… even before the Governor shot me.” Merle said.  
“Well then, we can amputate.” Daryl started.  
Merle shook his head no, “Not gonna happen little brother. I was bit on my shoulder. I’m a dead man walking.”  
Amanda gasped, “No.”  
“Listen, I don’t want to turn into a damn biter. You need to do the deed before I turn.” Merle said.  
“I don’t think I can.” Daryl said.  
“Well you’re gonna have to. I don’t want to become a damn biter.” Merle said again.  
Amanda could feel tears starting to come.  
“Don’t you dare start crying. I don’t want my last moments with my brother and sister all teary eyed over me.” Merle demanded.  
Amanda tried wiping them away, but one tear fell down her cheeks.  
Merle took his thumb and wiped the tear away.  
“That’s better, now, I don’t know how much time I have. But I feel I need to do the older brotherly thing. You two are the only family you have left. Take care of each other. Amanda you kind of adopted those two kids into our family, make sure they stay safe. Keep an eye on that Jake kid. He was growing on me.   
Amanda chuckled, “He calls you Captain Hook.”  
Merle chuckled. “Teach them how to hunt and track. Just like I taught the two of you. They will be part of the Dixon, Duggins family in no time.”  
Amanda smiled and nodded.  
“I am glad we all found each other at the end.” Merle said.  
“I just wish we had more time.” Amanda said.  
Merle nodded, “Me too little sister.”  
“Why did you go off on your own?” Daryl asked.  
“I tried killing the Governor. I was close, then a damn kid got in my way. If I succeeded then everybody would be safe, you two would have been safe. I am sorry I failed you two at that.” Merle said.  
“You didn’t fail us, if it weren’t for you and teaching us what we know, we wouldn’t have made it this far.” Daryl said.  
Merle grimaced in pain. “It’s almost time, I can feel it.”  
Daryl and Amanda helped Merle sit down, it was the most comfortable position now.  
“There is so much more I need to say. But I don’t have time to say it.” Merle said.  
“Don’t say anything.” Daryl said.  
“I feel like I only have minutes left.” Merle said.   
“It’s ok.” Amanda said.  
“No, I have to say this. I rarely ever say it, and I wish I said it more. You two are the best siblings I could have asked for. I… I love you.” Merle said.  
Daryl and Amanda hugged Merle.  
“We know man.” Daryl said. “You’re our brother.”  
“We love you too.” Amanda said.  
Merle smiled and that was the last thing he heard Daryl and Amanda say. The next thing he saw was blackness and then nothing.  
Amanda tried waking Merle up. It didn’t work.  
Tears were coming down their faces.  
“He’s gone. He’s gone. He’s gone.” Daryl said. He couldn’t believe it.  
The noise of them crying for the loss of their brother brought a couple Deadies in the building that they easily killed, it actually felt good killing the Deadies. It was the Deadies’ fault their brother was dead. It was also the Governor’s fault.  
“We have to…” Amanda couldn’t finish the sentence.  
“I know.” Daryl said. He took out his knife and just stared. He started shaking, he didn’t know if he could do it.  
“It’s ok Daryl. We’ll do it together. As a family.” Amanda said and she put her hand on the knife as well. They both bent down over Merle’s body and stabbed Merle in the head. They would not let their brother turn into a Deadie.  
That just brought on a wave of fresh tears. Stabbing Merle in the head was the final blow. Made everything real.  
After a while, they stopped crying and just sat in silence.   
“We need to bury him.” Daryl said.  
They searched for a couple shovels, they found four in a barn.  
They found the perfect spot for Merle. At the edge of the woods by the farm. Merle liked the woods, it was peaceful and quiet.  
“It’s going to take all day to dig a grave by ourselves.” Amanda said.  
Daryl nodded, “We’ll go back and get Rick to come help.”  
They moved Merle someplace safe so no deadies or other scavengers would eat him. Then they hurried back to the prison to tell everybody what happened.  
“The farm is littered with the Governor’s men. Merle took them all out. He tried to stop the Governor.” Daryl said.  
Rick, Michonne, Jake and Christie all went with Amanda and Daryl to help dig the grave for Merle. The others felt sorry for Amanda and Daryl but couldn’t bring themselves to feel sorry for Merle.   
It took them a couple hours to dig a deep enough hole for Merle. It was a great way for Daryl and Amanda to release their emotions. Once it was dug, they wrapped him up in an old tarp they found and put him in the ground and scooped the dirt on him. Once he was buried, Daryl found a couple sticks and made a cross to mark the grave. Amanda found a handful of fake flowers inside the farm house and laid them on the grave.  
The group was silent. Amanda and Daryl had an arm wrapped around each other just looking at the grave.   
Christie and Jake hugged Amanda.  
“I’m glad you two came.” Amanda said.  
“Of course we did. We’re here for you.” Christie said.  
Amanda smiled sadly.


	14. Chapter 14

The next day they realized what Merle did bought them some time. They weren’t going to let that time be wasted. They had a plan. But they had to pack up like they left for it to work.  
They packed everything up. Jake didn’t really know what was going on.  
“Why are we leaving?” Jake asked.  
“Bad men are coming to try to kill all of us. We are going to go someplace safe.” Christie explained.  
“Are we going to come back?” Jake asked.  
“I don’t know. But whatever happens, we will be together ok?” Christie said.  
Jake nodded.  
Hershel, Christie, Beth, Carl, Jake and the baby went into the car and drove into the woods. They had weapons just in case. They took the supplies and things as well. The rest of the group had a plan of action to defend the prison. They all took machine guns. Glenn and Maggie put on Armor. Daryl and Amanda’s job was to release the walkers that were imprisoned down in the labyrinth. Michonne’s job was to throw the smoke grenades. Carol’s job was to turn the alarm on. Everybody had weapons.   
When the Governor and his people came with the trucks and tanks. The barbed wire worked on the tank but it didn’t stop the tank from blowing up the watch towers. The men and women killed all of the Deadies in the prison before getting out of the vehicles and searching for them inside the prison. They went down into the labyrinth and the battle began. Michonne threw the smoke grenades which confused the Governor’s people and the Deadies were released which caused more confusion. The Governor’s people were scared and confused. It looked like they were not organized and they ran out of the building. Glenn and Maggie began shooting at the people creating more panic and confusion.   
Eventually with all of the shooting, the people were scared and hurried to return back to the vehicles and get out of there.  
Everybody was glad they won the battle. The rest of the group came from the forest.  
Christie, Amanda and Jake hugged. So glad the other was ok.   
Their next plan of action was to take down Woodbury. Only four people were going to do that. Glenn and Maggie decided to stay behind. They had bad memories of that place and don’t want to see it again.  
Rick and Michonne got in the truck. Daryl and Amanda rode the motorcycle.  
Amanda put on the blue windbreaker. The wind could get chilly riding a motorcycle.  
They drove towards Woodbury. But stopped when they were only partially there. A few of Woodbury’s vehicles were stalled. There were bodies everywhere.  
“Oh my god.” Amanda said.  
They parked and got off the motorcycle.  
They killed the deadies that were eating the dead.   
A woman was alive. She got their attention. She had her hands up in surrender and explained what happened.  
“The Governor just murdered everyone, in cold blood.” Karen the woman said. “I had a body on top of me and played dead. When he left. I ran and hid in here because the dead became Biters.”  
“We want to stop the Governor and find Andrea.” Rick said.  
“But Andrea hopped the wall to go to the prison.” Karen said.  
“She never made it.” Rick said.  
“Who’s Andrea?” Amanda asked.  
“She’s part of our group.” Daryl said.  
“We need to get to Woodbury and find her.” Rick said. “She might be there.”  
Karen nodded.  
They all made it outside Woodbury, but a gunfight started.  
Karen hollered, “Tyrese, Sasha, It’s me, don’t shoot.”  
“Get down.” Rick pulled Karen down.  
“Karen? Are you ok?” Tyrese yelled.  
“I’m fine.” Karen said standing up with her hands up.  
“Where’s the Governor?” Tyrese asked.  
“He fired on everyone. He killed them all.” Karen said.  
“Why are you with them?” Tyrese asked.  
“They saved me.” Karen said.  
“What do we do now?” Amanda asked.  
Rick hesitated for a second then yelled, “We’re coming out.”  
He stood up and put his gun down and raised his hands in surrender.  
“We’re coming out, we’re coming out.” Rick said.  
Amanda looked at Daryl and Daryl nodded.  
They stood up and put their hands in the air, they didn’t drop their weapons though.  
Tyrese opened up the gate.  
“What are you doing here?” Tyrese asked.  
“We were coming to finish this, until we saw what the Governor did.” Rick said.  
“He killed them?” Tyrese asked.  
Rick nodded, “Yah. Karen told us, Andrea hopped the wall to come to the prison. She never made it. She might be here.”  
Tyrese and Sasha let the group in.   
Rick and Daryl led the group to the area where Glenn and Maggie were held.  
“He held people here?” Tyrese asked.  
“He did more than hold them.” Daryl said.  
They walked to a door where blood was pooling out.  
Everybody had their weapons ready. They were afraid of what they were going to find.  
Rick just stood there for a minute.  
“Will you open it?” Michonne asked.  
Rick sighed and everybody braced for what they were going to find.  
“One, Two.” Rick said and opened the door.  
Inside there were two bodies, a dead man named Milton and Andrea.  
Michonne ran to Andrea, she was bit on the neck, badly.  
“Andrea.” Michonne gasped and ran to her side. “You’re burning up.”  
“I tried to stop him.” Andrea said. “Carl and the rest of them?”  
“The rest of us.” Rick said.  
“Are they alive?” Andrea asked.  
“Yah.” Rick said. “They’re alive.”  
Andrea smiled and looked at Michonne. “It’s good you found them. No one can make it alone there.”  
She looked at Daryl  
“I never could.” Daryl said.  
“You found your sister?” Andrea asked.  
Daryl nodded.  
“That’s good.” Andrea said. “I just didn’t want anyone to die… I can do it myself.”   
“No.” Michonne said, she had tears running down her face.  
“No, I have to, while I still can.” Andrea said.  
Michonne was crying.  
Andrea looked at Rick, “Please.”  
Rick was hesitant.  
“I know how the safety works.” Andrea said.  
“I’m not going anywhere.” Michonne said.  
Andrea looked around, “I tried.”  
“Yah, you did, you did.” Rick said and stood up.  
Rick, Daryl and Amanda left the room, Michonne stayed in there until Andrea pulled the trigger herself.  
They spent the night in Woodbury that night. The next morning. Rick made a speech and explained what happened.  
A lot of people couldn’t believe it and were shocked.   
Rick said everybody was welcome to come live with them. They would have protection.  
All the people of Woodbury ended up packing their things and ended up on a bus to the prison where they would make their new safe home.


	15. Chapter 15

Months have passed. The prison was home to about a hundred people. Everybody from Woodbury and people found on the road. There were kids and Jake made friends. Amanda and Christie were glad he was making friends, he looked happy.  
Carl and Jake shared a cell bedroom. They liked to stay up late and read comics that Michonne found when she was on her runs. After the boys read them, Michonne, Amanda and Christie liked reading them too.  
Hershel taught Rick and Carl how to turn some of the grassy parts into farm land.  
Because of the many people in the prison, it has attracted a lot of Deadies. The adults all had a job to do. Some were on Deadie patrol, or Walker Patrol. Others were Hunters, Cooks, Nurses, Doctors, Farmers, Babysitters, Teachers, etc… Hershel got a fake leg. He was glad he didn’t have to use the crutches anymore.  
Christie was a babysitter along with Beth. They loved watching the little kids together. Christie was also on Walker Patrol for an hour every day.  
Amanda was on Walker Patrol and she was also a hunter with Daryl. They had to hunt every day for enough food for a hundred people. They created snares and sometimes caught deer. Mostly they caught raccoons and rabbits. Somehow they got everybody fed. They also went on runs to abandoned buildings for food and supplies.  
Hershel, Sasha, Carol, Glenn, Daryl and Rick were on the Council. They were all the leaders, they made the rules. Rick was happy not to have all of the responsibility of being a leader. He liked playing farmer and seeing his son be a happy normal boy for a change.  
Amanda was very proud her brother was on the Council.  
Beth started dating a boy her age. His name is Zach. Zach really liked going on runs with Daryl. He invented a game, he was trying to figure out what Daryl was before all of this happened. He guessed once per day. Every time he got it wrong. Daryl thought it was amusing. Amanda thought it was annoying.  
Sometimes when groups are out hunting or gathering food. They sometimes find other people who need sanctuary. After being asked three questions, there is a criteria. How many Walkers have you killed, how many people have you killed and why did you kill them? If the answers were to their satisfaction, they are invited to come live with them. That has happened to Amanda and Daryl a couple times when they were out hunting.  
Amanda liked someone as well. His name is Matt. He has brown hair and blue eyes. His main job is Walker patrol. Amanda likes going on Deadie Patrol with him.  
Matt and Amanda started out turning killing Deadies into a game. Whoever stabbed the most Deadies in the head in an hour wins a prize. The prizes could all be different. It could be a piece of candy, make the other person run a lap, do a cartwheel, just silly stupid stuff, nothing dangerous. Lately it was who got to read the comic books next after Carl and Jake were finished. One day when they were playing the game, Matt won and killed more Deadies then Amanda.  
Amanda sighed and grinned. “Ok, you get to read the comics first.”  
Matt shook his head no and grinned.  
Amanda frowned, “No? Not the comics? Do you want me to do a cartwheel?”  
“No.” Matt said.  
“Um, run?” Amanda asked.  
Matt shook his head no, “No. I want you to close your eyes.”  
Amanda lifted an eyebrow.  
“Trust me.” Matt said.  
Amanda sighed, “I’m warning you. I’m an expert in butt kicking.”  
Matt chuckled, “I know, it’s nothing bad. I promise.”  
Amanda sighed and closed her eyes. The next thing she knew. She felt someone’s lips on hers. Amanda jumped back in surprise.  
Matt had a strange look on his face. “Sorry. Crossing the line?”  
Amanda was deep in thought for a minute. It was making Matt nervous.  
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again. Just forget that happened.” Matt looked embarrassed.  
“Um… let’s kill more Deadies.” Amanda said awkwardly.  
Matt didn’t say anything, he just nodded.  
They killed more Deadies and Amanda won the next hour.  
“I win.” Amanda said.  
Matt nodded, “Your wish is my command.”  
He sounded subdued.  
Amanda smirked, “Close your eyes.”  
Matt now looked worried.  
“Go on.” Amanda said.  
Matt sighed and closed his eyes, not expecting what was to come.  
Amanda smiled, walked up to him and kissed him on the lips.  
Matt jumped back startled.  
Amanda smiled.  
“Um.” Matt started. “I thought that was below the line.”  
“What line?” Amanda asked.  
“But you didn’t say anything.” Matt said.  
Amanda shrugged, “Watching you worry like that was funny. I like kissing you… I think… um.”  
“You think what?” Matt asked with a smile.  
Amanda shrugged shyly, “That we should kiss… more often.”  
“Really?” Matt asked.  
Amanda nodded.  
“I’d like that.” Matt said with a grin.  
They kissed again and decided to become a couple.  
Christie was so happy for Amanda when she heard Amanda kissed Matt.  
“You’ve had a crush on him since you first met him.” Christie said excitedly.  
Amanda chuckled.  
“So I want details, what made him kiss you?” Christie asked.  
“Well, we were playing our game, who can kill the most Deadies, he won. He had me close my eyes. I was nervous at first and I was getting defensive but I went along, and he kissed me.” Amanda said.  
Christie squealed with delight. “Then what?”  
“I was quiet, I was making him sweat. Made it kind of awkward and we didn’t say anything about it and continued killing Deadies for the next hour.” Amanda said.  
“Oh, No.” Christie chuckled. “I bet a million things were going through his mind.”  
Amanda chuckled, “I think so too. So I won the second time and had him close his eyes. He did and was nervous and I kissed him.”  
Christie squealed in delight again.  
Amanda told Christie the rest.  
“That is awesome.” Christie said with a smile.  
Amanda and Matt dated that whole summer. They killed Deadies together, they read the comics together. They went on runs together. Daryl thought it was amusing. His little sister had a boyfriend.  
That summer. Glenn and Maggie made the marriage official. There was a ceremony. Beth was the maid of honor. Judith was the designated flower girl, Carl was the Ring Bearer. Hershel walked Maggie down the aisle and Rick married them by reading from the bible. There was music and dancing and they all had a fun time.  
Amanda caught the Bouquet.  
“That means you have to get married next.” Jake said with a grin.  
Amanda blushed at that. Matt heard what Jake said.  
Amanda was showing Matt how to shoot a crossbow and how to make snares. He ended up pretty decent. He was able to shoot a squirrel once in a while.  
Amanda and Daryl were hunting one day.  
“So you and Matt.” Daryl started.  
“Matt and I.” Amanda said.  
“You look happy with him.” Daryl said. “Have you… um… well you know…”  
Amanda rolled her eyes. She was embarrassed they were having this topic, “Not that it’s any of your business, but… no.”  
“Ok, just asking, don’t need to bite my head off.” Daryl said.  
“You know how I feel about that…my mom wants me to wait until I’m married.” Amanda said, “I feel like I need to abide by her wishes.”  
“Even in this crappy world you’re still going to wait?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda rolled her eyes again, “This is a weird topic to be having with my brother.”  
Daryl shrugged, “I just wanted to make sure you and Matt were being careful. I know how boys are.”  
Amanda chuckled, “Well I appreciate you having my back. Can we talk about something else? This is getting really awkward.”  
Daryl nodded.  
On one of their supply runs with Glenn, Daryl and Amanda. They met someone on the road. His name was Bob.  
“You got point?” Glenn asked.  
“Yah I got it.” Daryl said.  
The three of them had their weapons out. Amanda was on lookout for Deadies while the men questioned the new guy.  
“Hi, hello.” The man said.  
“Are you alone out here?” Glenn asked.  
“Yah.” The man said.  
“How long has it been like that for?” Daryl asked.  
“I don’t know… I was with one group and another one after that.” The man said.  
“They didn’t make it? Not a one of them?” Daryl asked.  
The man shook his head no.  
“What’s your name?” Glenn asked.  
“Bob.” Bob said. “You people have a camp?”  
“How many walkers have you killed?” Daryl asked.  
“Haven’t kept count, a couple dozen.” Bob said.  
“How many people have you killed?” Glenn asked.  
“Only one.” Bob said.  
“Why?” Daryl asked.  
“She asked me to.” Bob said.  
“Do you want to come with us?” Daryl asked  
Bob looked around the woods, “Yes.”  
“Do you have any questions for us?” Daryl asked.  
“No, it doesn’t really matter who you are.” Bob said.  
“Really?” Glenn asked.  
“Yah, it doesn’t matter.” Bob said.  
Glenn took Bob to the Prison. Daryl and Amanda went on the supply run.  
They went to a house to grab what they needed. They grabbed what food they could find, they also grabbed batteries, flashlights and whatever else they found they could use.  
Daryl found a woman’s leather jacket in a closet. It was black with pink flowers on the back and on the arms.  
“Here, try this on. You haven’t received a proper 21st birthday gift.” Daryl said.  
Amanda tried on the jacket. It fit her perfectly.  
“Looks good.” Daryl said, “Will go good with the vest too.”  
Amanda smiled and nodded, “Thank you.”  
“You’re welcome.” Daryl said.  
Christie loved the look of the jacket.  
“Daryl found it. He says it’s a proper 21st birthday present.” Amanda chuckled.  
“That fits you better than my dad’s old jacket.” Christie said with a smile, then frowned, she missed her parents.  
“Come on, let’s get a couple aprons and go kill some deadies.” Amanda said trying to take Christie’s mind off of her parents.


	16. Chapter 16

On one of the runs, the group found a refugee camp. Sadly everything inside was a Deadie. But there was a lot of supplies.  
“We need the supplies.” Sasha said.  
“We don’t have enough ammo to get rid of them all.” Glenn said.  
“We could draw them out.” Daryl said.  
They didn’t do anything with the camp that day. They found other buildings and got supplies and went back to the prison.   
The next day, Sasha, Daryl and Glenn and Amanda went back to the Refugee camp with a boom box.  
Daryl found two car batteries and hooked the boom box up to it.  
The Deadies were going nuts because of the music.  
Amanda used a wire cutter and cut through the fence.   
They waited a few days until returning to the Refugee camp. They had a small group. Their numbers were thin because every able bodied adult had to be on Walker Patrol back at the prison. The walkers were getting thick by the fence.   
Daryl, Amanda, Bob, Glenn, Zach, Sasha, Michonne and Tyrese were the only ones who could be spared. Glenn wouldn’t let Maggie go.   
This was Bob’s first run for supplies. He has only been with the Prison for a week. When they got to the Refugee camp, it looked deserted.   
Everybody had their weapons out and Daryl was the leader of this run.  
“Alright, let’s make a sweep, make sure it’s safe. We’ll grab what we can and come back tomorrow with more people.” Daryl said.  
Everybody split up to look around.  
Daryl, Zach, Michonne and Amanda were standing outside a building.  
Daryl banged his hand on the window to get any walker’s attention.  
“Just give it a minute.” Daryl said sitting on the ledge next to Zach.  
“Ok, I think I got it.” Zach said.  
“Got what?” Michonne asked.  
Amanda rolled her eyes, “Again?”  
“I’m gonna keep guessing until I guess right.” Zach said.  
“Guess what?” Michonne asked.  
“I’ve been trying to guess what Daryl did before the turn.” Zach said.  
“He’s been trying to guess for six weeks.” Daryl said.  
“I’m pacing myself. One shot a day.” Zach said.  
“Ok, shoot.” Daryl said amused.  
“Well, the way you are at the prison. You are on the council, you’re able to track. You’re helping people while still being kind of a…surly.” Zach said.  
“Hmm, bold move saying that to his face.” Amanda said amused.  
“Ok, so here’s my guess… Homicide Cop.” Zach said.  
Michonne started laughing. Amanda couldn’t believe somebody would even guess such nonsense.  
“What’s so funny?” Daryl asked.  
“Nothing… makes perfect sense.” Michonne said chuckling.  
“Actually, the man’s right. Undercover.” Daryl said.  
“Really? I got it right?” Zach asked excited.  
Amanda smiled.  
“I mean, I don’t like to talk about it cuz, there’s a lot of heavy shit you know?” Daryl said.  
“Come on? Really?” Zach asked.  
Daryl gave him a look.  
Zach sighed, “I’ll just have to keep guessing then.”  
“You do that.” Daryl said.  
“Merle would have a hay day if you were a cop.” Amanda grinned.  
“Who’s Merle?” Zach asked.  
Before anybody could answer, a walker banged on the door.  
“Are we gonna do this detective?” Michonne asked.  
“Let’s do it.” Daryl said.  
They had their weapons ready and opened the door to the building.  
They killed the Deadies and dragged them out.  
“All right, we go in, stay in formation for the sweep. After that, you all know what you're supposed to look for.” Sasha said. “Any questions?”  
“Was there a time you weren’t the boss of me?” Tyrese asked.  
Sasha smiled, “A few years before I was born.”  
They walked in the building and stayed in formation searching for walkers. Once they were all dead, they split up to look for the supplies.  
Amanda watched Michonne behead a cardboard monster.  
After a couple minutes. Everybody heard a crash. Bob was pinned under shelves. There was glass everywhere and the smell of alcohol was overpowering.  
Daryl took a flashlight and saw Bob, “Are you alright, are you cut or something?”  
“No, man, but my foot is caught.” Bob said.  
“All right, he’s just caught. Come on, help me get this up.” Daryl said.  
“Everyone’s alright, we’re over in wine and beer.” Zach yelled for the others.  
“I was moving fast man, I drove right into the drinks.” Bob said.  
“Man you lucked out, if this thing came down on you the wrong way.” Tyrese said.  
Before anything else could be said, there was another crash, this one was through the ceiling. A deadie fell out from the ceiling.  
“Yah… uh, we should probably go now.” Glenn said.  
“Bob’s still stuck.” Amanda said.  
After a couple minutes, it looked like it was raining Deadies.  
Everybody began fighting the Deadies. Michonne was using her sword, Tyrese, Sasha, Zach and Glenn had guns, Daryl and Amanda were using their crossbows.   
Daryl ended up being trapped on a staircase of cases of alcohol. It was right under where a helicopter was about ready to fall.  
Glenn and Amanda hurried and killed the Deadies that trapped Daryl.  
“Daryl get out of there.” Amanda yelled seeing the helicopter was about to fall where Daryl was at.  
Daryl moved.  
“We gotta get Bob.” Zach said.  
Daryl and Zach lifted the shelf off of Bob. But before Zach could get a way, a deadie bit into Zach’s jeans and more bit into his neck.  
“Zach.” Glenn screamed.  
Zach was screaming as he was being eaten alive.  
“Come on, we gotta go.” Sasha said.  
“There’s nothing we can do.” Michonne said.  
“That things coming down.” Amanda gasped.  
“Let’s go, now.” Daryl said.  
Everybody ran out of the building as the helicopter was coming down.   
Everybody was quiet on the way back to the prison. That run was a suicide run, they didn’t get all of the supplies and they lost an important member of their community.  
Amanda told Christie what happened when they returned.  
“Oh my gosh.” Christie gasped. “Poor Zach… He was so brave and he was funny.”   
Amanda nodded.  
“How’s Beth taking it?” Christie asked.  
Amanda sighed, “Daryl’s telling her.”  
“Should we go see her?” Christie asked.  
Amanda shrugged, “She might want to be left alone.”  
Christie nodded. “That’s horrible.”  
“We all learned something today.” Amanda said.  
“What?” Christie asked.  
“Deadies can bite through denim jeans.” Amanda said.


	17. Chapter 17

The next morning, the girls woke up to the sound of gunshots.   
They jumped out of bed and got their shoes on. They grabbed their weapons and hurried out of their cell.  
Jake looked scared.  
“Jake go back in the cell with Carl.” Amanda said.  
“Carl’s not there.” Jake said.  
“Go back in the cell and close the door.” Amanda said. “Hide on the top bunk under the blanket.”  
Jake nodded.  
“Whatever noise you hear, do not come out until someone comes and gets you.” Amanda said.  
“I’m scared.” Jake said.  
“I’ll stay with him. Go.” Christie said.  
Amanda nodded and hurried out of the cell block and into the tombs where she met up with Sasha, Tyrese, Daryl and Hershel. They checked the tombs and saw that it wasn’t a breach. Hershel stayed on guard just in case.  
They hurried outside to a couple young girls yelling for help.  
“WALKERS IN D.” Glenn yelled.  
“WHAT ABOUT C?” Rick asked.  
“Clear.” Amanda said.  
“We locked the gates to the tombs. Hershel’s on guard.” Sasha said.  
“It ain’t a breach.” Daryl said.  
Everybody was running towards Cell Block D.  
People were screaming in the cell block. There were walkers and deadies. Everything was chaotic. Somebody had a gun and was shooting at the deadies. Daryl grabbed the gun.  
“Move, get out of here.” Daryl yelled. He tossed the gun to Rick and shot his crossbow at a walker.  
“Go, get in the cells.” Amanda said stabbing a deadie in the head and shooting another with her crossbow.  
People were leaving the Cell Block, others were locking themselves in the cells.  
Once all of the walkers were dead what they could tell, everybody had to be checked in the cells.  
“Check all of them, every cell.” Rick ordered.  
Everybody had to be checked for walker bites  
“Are we clear down here?” Rick asked.  
“Yah.” Sasha said.  
Daryl, Rick and Glenn walked upstairs to double check upstairs. A walker attacked Glenn. Daryl shot the walker in the head.  
Amanda and Matt hugged when it was all over. He was safe. A walker came into his cell when it happened and Matt jabbed a knife in the walker’s head. He helped with the fight and got some of the kids to safety.  
Daryl, Rick, Hershel, Bob, and Doctor S were examining a walker body.   
They had grim faces when they left the body.  
“What’s going on?” Amanda asked Daryl.  
“We’ve been exposed to a flu strain.” Daryl said.  
“We need to have a council meeting to figure out what our next move is.” Hershel said.  
“Christie and Jake are in their cells, they don’t know what’s going on.” Amanda said.  
“Don’t go in there. Judith is in there too. You can expose them.” Hershel said. “They are safe where they are for now.”  
Amanda sighed.  
“Come on, lets go see if someone who hasn’t been exposed can let them know it’s safe to come out.” Matt suggested.  
Amanda nodded and they walked outside.  
They saw Rick talking to Carl and Michonne and Maggie were further away, it looked like Michonne was hurt.  
“Carl wasn’t in there.” Amanda said.  
They hurried closer to Rick and Carl but not too close to Carl.   
“Can you let Christie and Jake know what’s going on? They’re in C Block, either in your cell or mine and Christie’s.” Amanda said.  
Carl nodded, “Yah.”  
“Thanks.” Amanda said.  
“Now what?” Matt asked, “Do you want to go kill some Deadies?”  
“Amanda shook her head no, “We need to start burying the bodies.”  
“Shouldn’t we wait until the Council is done with their meeting?” Matt asked.  
Amanda nodded.  
“Well, we don’t know how long that will be, in the meantime, lets kill some Deadies… no race, just… to take our mind off things.” Matt said.  
Amanda agreed and they grabbed their aprons and weapons and headed out to kill some Deadies.  
There were a lot of them on the fence. After a while, Maggie joined them.  
“Stay back, we don’t want to expose you.” Matt said.  
Maggie nodded.  
The three of them were killing Deadies for a while, but it seemed every one they killed, two took its place. There were so many Deadies.  
The fence started shaking from so many Deadies. Maggie ran to get more help while Amanda and Matt were still trying to make a dent in this Deadie population.  
Everybody who heard Maggie yell for help hurried towards the fence where Amanda and Matt were.  
“The noise drew them out.” Maggie yelled over the commotion.  
“Hurry, this parts starting to give.” Amanda yelled over the commotion.  
Daryl, Rick, Glenn, Tyrese and Sasha heard Maggie and came running to help kill the Deadies.   
Sasha saw something on the ground that looked abnormal, it was dead rats.  
“Somebody’s feeding these things.” Sasha said.  
They couldn’t give it much thought, the fence was going to give.  
“This part of the fence, now.” Maggie yelled.  
“It’s gonna give, it’s gonna give.” Matt yelled.  
They tried pushing the gate back up, but there were too many deadies.  
“It’s no use, everybody back, come on everybody back.” Daryl said.  
“We can’t let them through.” Amanda said, she and Matt were still trying to push the fence back.  
“I said back.” Daryl said and he pulled the two back.  
“With the fence bending like that, the deadies are gonna get through.” Amanda said.  
“Well it’s no use wasting our energy trying to hold it back, that plan is not working.” Daryl said.  
“What do we do?” Matt asked.  
“Daryl get the truck, I know what to do.” Rick said.  
Daryl nodded.  
Rick told them the plan and everybody helped put the plan into action.  
They helped load up the pigs and put them in a crate. Then loaded the crate to a trailer and hitched the trailer to the truck. They were going to sacrifice the pigs.  
Once that plan was put in motion. Everybody started putting poles up against the fence to support and reinforce it.  
The plan worked. Rick cut the pigs with his knife and had the deadies follow the smell of wounded pig, he let the wounded pig go and it was devoured by deadies, he continued doing that until there were no more pigs.   
Once things calmed down. Everybody went their separate ways, they all had a job to do. Amanda and Matt decided to help Maggie and Glenn dig the graves. There were 12 people that were killed because of the flu or a walker.   
Later that day, Daryl told Amanda that they had a council meeting.  
“What about?” Amanda asked.  
“Everybody in D has the flu.” Daryl said.  
“I’m in D, I don’t have the flu.” Matt said.  
“Let’s hope you don’t get it.” Daryl said, “Listen, for precautionary reasons, you two need to stay apart, like how Glenn and Maggie were.  
“Were?” Matt asked.  
Daryl nodded, “Glenn has the flu.”  
Amanda gasped, “Oh My God.”   
“You need stay on guard. Karen and David are dead.” Daryl said.  
“The flu got to them too?” Matt asked.  
Daryl nodded, “But they didn’t die from the flu, somebody killed them. Stay on guard, always have your weapons handy.”  
“I need to check on Christie and Jake.” Amanda said, “I haven’t seen them since this morning.”  
“It’s best if you keep your distance. They are going in Quarantine with the rest of the kids.” Daryl said.  
“Quarantine?” Amanda gasped.  
Daryl nodded.  
“How are we gonna beat this?” Amanda asked.  
“I’m getting a group together, Hershel gave me a map where he knows of some medicine.” Daryl said.  
“Great, I’m going with you.” Amanda said and she grabbed her crossbow.  
“No.” Daryl said.  
“No?” Amanda was surprised.  
“It’s too dangerous.” Daryl said.  
“You can’t go by yourself.” Amanda tried to reason.  
“I’m not, Michonne and Bob are coming.” Daryl said.  
“Why can’t I go then?” Amanda asked, “There’s room for four people in the car.”  
“I’m not going to risk your life. I need you to stay safe here.” Daryl said.  
“This place isn’t really that safe anymore.” Amanda said, “Please I can help get the medicine too.”  
“No.” Daryl said, “I need you to stay here and help run this place.” Daryl said.  
Amanda sighed, she didn’t like not being able to go with her brother.  
Later that day, she watched the car leave, Daryl was driving, Michonne was in the passenger seat and Bob and Tyrese were in the back. She saw that they were in the Freestyle, there was 3rd row seating that nobody was in. She was hoping they were gonna take this car. She had her pack on her and it was empty so there was room for the medicine.   
When Daryl was waiting for Matt to open the gate. Amanda hurried and jumped in the back of the car via the trunk.  
Daryl looked behind to the trunk, “Amanda Lynn Duggins, what hell do you think you’re doing?”  
“I’m not gonna stay here worrying if you’re going to come back or not. I already lost my mother and our oldest brother, I’m not gonna lose you too.” Amanda said.  
“It’s not safe.” Daryl said.  
“Nor is staying here. Now we are wasting time arguing, hurry and go or the Deadies will get in.” Amanda said.  
Daryl was angry but he drove through the gate and Matt closed it.


	18. Chapter 18

It was silent for a while then Daryl tried the radio, there was nothing but static.  
“Hand me one of those CDs.” Daryl said to Michonne.  
Michonne picked up the CD case. Then something was heard on the radio. It sounded like Terminus.  
“Is that a voice?” Bob asked.  
They heard the word Alive.  
They were quiet trying to hear if anything else was said.  
Before anything else was said or done, Daryl ran into a Deadie and tried to swerve away from more Deadies. Daryl stopped the car, there was no way they were going to drive through that mess, there were hundreds if not a thousand deadies on the road in front of them.  
“Grab something.” Daryl ordered and reversed the car running over deadies.  
Everybody braced themselves.   
The car ended up getting stuck. The back tires lost traction because Deadies were under the car.  
“We’re jammed up.” Michonne said.  
Daryl still tried to drive but it wasn’t working. “We’re gonna have to make a run for it, run for the gaps right there." He said pointing. "Make a run for the woods and don’t stop for nothing you hear? Now.”  
Daryl pushed the sunroof out and climbed up that and started shooting Deadies with his crossbow. Michonne went out her door and started cutting off heads. Amanda went through the trunk hitting deadies in the head with it and then kicking them into other deadies and stabbing others in the head.  
She used her crossbow to hit other deadies in the head and stab other deadies with her knife.  
She dodged other deadies and shot one deadie with her crossbow and ran and grabbed her arrow.  
She stabbed another deadie in the head and an arrow from Daryl’s crossbow flew past her. The deadie it hit was too close to her.  
She grabbed the arrow and ran towards Daryl and Michonne. She stabbed another deadie with Daryl’s arrow and made it to Daryl and Michonne, she gave the arrow back.  
They killed more deadies and Bob reached them. Tyrese was surrounded by Deadies. He was fighting them off.  
“Go. Go. Go.” Tyrese yelled.  
Amanda shivered, she had a flashback to Andy when he sacrificed himself so the girls and Jake could live. It looked like Tyrese was doing the same.  
“Come on.” Daryl said.  
They hurried into the forest and killed more deadies.   
“Lets go.” Daryl said, “Come on.”  
They made it into a clearing and regrouped.   
“Hold up.” Daryl said.  
Daryl and Amanda reloaded their crossbows.  
Deadies appeared, but before they could shoot, a tired and worn out Tyrese killed them and collapsed to his knees.  
More deadies appeared and Michonne stabbed them with her sword.  
“Come on.” Daryl said helping Tyrese.  
They ran away from the Deadies until they lost them.  
They stopped when it got dark at Turner Creek.   
“Come on we have to keep going.” Tyrese said.  
“We’re not going to get anywhere in the dark.” Amanda said.  
“We’ll camp here tonight, keep going at first light.” Daryl said.  
“We could lose everybody at the prison by then.” Tyrese said.  
“They will have a better chance if we don’t travel in the dark, something could happen to us, then they won’t have any chance.” Daryl said.  
“We’ll take turns keeping watch.” Amanda said.  
“I will take first watch.” Daryl said.  
“I will stay up with you.” Bob said. “Two look outs are better than one.”  
“Good idea.” Daryl said.  
“I’ll take the second watch.” Michonne said.  
“Me too.” Amanda said.   
“No, you should sleep, I’ll take the second watch with Michonne.” Tyrese said.  
Amanda was about to say something.  
“Don’t argue with me. You’re still young, you need sleep.” Tyrese said.  
“Ty you were just in a hoard of Walkers.” Bob started, “You need to rest to gain your strength.”  
“I’ll be fine.” Tyrese said. “Wake me up for second watch.”  
Everybody who wasn’t on watch laid down and fell asleep.  
When it was time for second watch, Daryl woke up Amanda instead.  
“Ty needs his sleep.” Daryl whispered. “You can do second watch with Michonne.”  
Amanda nodded.  
Michonne and Amanda didn’t talk a whole lot. They were both lost in their own thoughts.   
Amanda was thinking about her mother and playing with her locket. She wondered if her mother was still a deadie or if somebody finally did the deed that she herself could not. She thought about her mother a lot at night. She kept wondering if she just went to get her mother the first night before going home if her mom would be alive. Or if it was already too late before she even left the college.   
All night, Michonne and Amanda only had to kill a single Deadie. It wasn’t worth waking up everybody.   
The next morning, Tyrese was angry he wasn’t woken up for the second shift.   
“You needed your sleep so you could be at full strength.” Daryl said.  
Tyrese was in a bad mood that morning. He decided to take out his frustrations on rinsing out his bloody shirt in the water.   
“This is Turner Creek, so Barnesville must be a few miles downstream.” Michonne said.  
“Sounds like our best chance at finding a new ride.” Bob said.  
“Yo, Ty. Come on, let's go.” Daryl said. “Va¡monos.”  
Tyrese was ignoring.  
Michonne, Amanda and Daryl started walking.  
A few minutes later, Bob and Tyrese caught up.  
They were walking on a gravel path. Daryl picked up a rock.  
“Is that jasper?” Michonne asked.  
Daryl nodded.  
“It’s a good color. Brings out your eyes.” Michonne joked.  
“When Miss Richards went into A block, we were leaving. She asked me to keep a lookout.” Daryl said. “I’m gonna use it for her old man’s marker.”  
You know all them back there?” Michonne asked.  
“You stay in one place more than a couple hours, you'd be surprised what you pick up.” Daryl said.  
After a while they finally reached the town. It looked deserted.  
Daryl was staring at a pile of brush.  
“You see something?” Bob asked.  
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Daryl said.  
They all pitched in taking the brush off of a vehicle.   
Daryl got inside and tried to hotwire the vehicle, it wasn’t working.   
“We gotta find us a new battery.” Daryl said.  
Amanda tried cleaning off a window to a building. A Deadie banged on the glass, “We have some friends inside.”  
They went searching for the door to the building, it was all covered in vines and brush.  
“Let’s clear a path, see how many we got.” Daryl said.  
They all started taking down the vines. Tyrese was hacking away.   
“Hey man, go easy, we don’t know what we’re dealing with.” Daryl said.  
A few minutes later, Deadies started coming out from the vines. They had to fight them off.  
Tyrese was pulling one Deadie out of the vines.  
“Tyrese.” Bob yelled.  
“Ty, let him go.” Michonne said.  
The Deadie landed on top of Tyrese.   
Daryl hurried and pulled the Deadie off of Ty and Bob shot the deadie in the head.  
“Why the hell didn’t you let go?” Amanda asked.  
Tyrese didn’t say anything. He just gave them all a strange look.  
“You two clear the brush off the car. You two come with me to look for a battery." Daryl ordered.  
They found a garage where hopefully would be a battery for the car.   
They all looked around.  
“Here we go.” Daryl said finding a battery and looking inside it.  
“Hmm, cells look pretty dry.” Bob said.  
“A little distilled water will clear that right up.” Daryl said.  
Amanda went looking around. Looking for water for the battery.  
“Ew.” Amanda said. She saw puke on the ground and saw why the people puked. They poisoned themselves with antifreeze.  
She spotted a gallon of distilled water, she picked it up.  
Daryl and Bob walked towards Amanda, “Those douchebags in the vines took themselves out, holding hands Kumbaya style.”  
“They wanted to go out together, same as they lived. That make them douchebags?” Bob asked.  
“It does if they could have gotten out.” Daryl said.  
“Everybody makes it, till they don’t.” Bob said. “People nowadays are dominoes. What they did, maybe it’s about not having to watch them fall.”   
“Right.” Daryl said, “Come on.”  
They took all that they could use out of the garage. Daryl found a pack of cigarettes and put it in his pocket.  
He lit a cigarette when they were at the van installing the battery. He offered one to Bob who took one.  
“You’re not offering one to your sister?” Bob asked.  
"Yah right." Daryl said.  
“Even in this crazy world, I will not smoke a cigarette.” Amanda said.  
They were watching Daryl install the car battery.   
“You never told us about the group you were with before.” Amanda said. She was watching her brother install the car battery.   
“Which one? You know, when you found me out on that road, I almost kept walking.” Bob said.  
“Why is that?” Amanda asked.  
“Cause I was done being a witness. Two times, two different groups. I was the last one standing. Like I was supposed to see it happen over and over, like it's some kind of curse. But, when it's just you out there with the quiet… Used to be I'd drink a bottle of anything just so I could shut my eyes at night. Figured the prison, the people, thought it'd be easier. The run to the big spot, I did it for me.  
“You gotta keep busy.” Daryl said.  
“No. I did it so I could get me a bottle of anything. I picked it up, I held it in my hand, but I put it down. I put it down so hard it took the whole damn shelf with it. That’s what brought on the walkers, and that’s what got Zack killed.  
“That's bullshit.” Daryl said, “Mandy why don't you get in there and try the engine? Just do what you saw me do before. It's a red and a green wire. Go on. It ain't rocket science.”  
Amanda nodded and for the first time, hotwired a car.   
“Give it some gas.” Daryl said.  
Amanda did as she was told. It worked. She was proud of herself. She got out of the van and looked at Daryl with a grin.  
Daryl nodded in approval at Mandy.   
“Mandy and I picked that spot and took you with us. There ain’t no way anybody could’ve known. You ain’t gonna be standing alone, not no more.” Daryl said to Bob. “Let's go.”  
Bob drove the van.  
They didn’t want the noise from the van to alert the Walkers, so they parked right outside the town. And continued on foot.  
“Looks like we’re getting closer.” Bob said after a while. “The building we want is just up ahead.”  
They entered the building.   
They entered a room, “Alright, let’s make this quick.” Daryl said.  
They grabbed anything that could be useful.  
They found the room that had medicine.  
“Anything ending with cillin or cin, grab it.” Bob said. “We’ll dissolve the pills in the IVs, put em right into the bloodstream.” Bob said. “Dosage will be tricky but considering the time we lost…”   
Ty and Michonne were in another room getting bags, tubes, clamps and connectors. They got everything on the list.  
“We got it all?” Bob asked.  
“Yah, we’re good.” Michonne said.  
“Alright, let’s roll.” Daryl said.  
To their misfortune, they couldn’t go out the way they came in, there were Walkers everywhere.  
“Up ahead.” Michonne said.  
They entered a room and Bob shut the door, the door was busted.  
“Hold up.” Daryl said, he and Tyrese worked together to latch the door.   
Michonne and Amanda walked towards a door. There were Deadies on the other side. The only thing keeping the doors shut was a padlock.  
“How many?” Daryl asked.  
“I can’t tell.” Michonne said.  
The Deadies got through the door that was busted.  
“We can take them.” Tyrese said.  
“No! They’re infected, same as at the prison. We fire at em, get their blood on us, breathe it in. We didn’t come all this way to get sick.” Bob said.  
“How do we know the ones in there aren't any different?” Tyrese asked.  
“We don’t.” Amanda said.  
“Well, it's gotta change sometime.” Daryl said.  
“Ready?” Michonne asked.  
“Do it.” Tyrese said.  
The Padlock was cut and the Deadies came out, there was only four. Michonne cut off two heads, Bob shot one in the head and Daryl shot one with the crossbow.  
“Come on.” Daryl ordered.  
They ran through the door and up the stairs.  
They were being chased by walkers. They were trapped.  
“There’s no exit.” Amanda said.  
“Then we make one.” Daryl said, he jumped up on a ledge.  
Tyrese grabbed a fire extinguisher, “GET DOWN!”  
He broke the window.  
“Come on, move it! Jump down to the walkway below.” Daryl said helping everybody through the window.  
Everybody made it through the window and onto the walkway. Bob’s bag slipped over the side. He wasn’t letting go of it. He was fighting a bunch of walkers for it.  
The others tried helping him to keep him on the walkway.  
“Bob, let it go.” Amanda said.  
“Let it go man.” Tyrese said.  
“Just let it go.” Michonne said.  
“Let go of the bag, man.” Daryl said.  
They got Bob and the bag up and way from the walkers. The bag landed and there was a sound of glass clinking and the bag wasn’t cinched all the way, there was a bottle in the bag.  
Daryl walked over to the bag and took out the bottle, it was alcohol, and not the medicinal kind.  
“You got no meds in your bag? Just this?” Daryl asked.  
Bob looked afraid.  
“You should have kept walking that day.” Daryl said angry he was about ready to throw the bottle.  
“Don’t.” Bob said, he had his hand on his gun.  
That made Daryl angry. He got right up in Bob’s face in challenge. He took Bob’s gun away and grabbed Bob’s shirt.  
“Just let it go Daryl.” Tyrese said. “The man's made his choice. Nothing you can do about it. Just gotta let it go.”   
“Why Bob?” Amanda asked.  
“I didn't want to hurt nobody. It was just for when it gets quiet.” Bob said.  
“Take one sip before those meds get in our people, I will beat your ass into the ground. You hear me?” Daryl promised giving the bottle back to Bob.  
They hurried towards the van, they were safe for the moment. They were at least 7 hours away from the prison.  
They didn’t talk much. Daryl was too pissed at Bob. The quiet was thick.  
It was late at night by the time they got back to the prison. Carl hurried and opened the door and let them through. Tyrese opened the door.  
“Sasha? How’s Sasha?” Tyrese asked.  
“I don’t know.” Rick said.  
Tyrese ran towards A block where all the sick were.   
Matt ran towards Amanda and hugged her. “I was so worried.”  
Amanda chuckled, “You were worried about me?”  
“Well, yah. You know.” Matt looked embarrassed.  
Amanda chuckled, “That’s sweet.” She kissed him which made him blush.  
They walked together to A block so Amanda could take out the medicine she collected.  
She saw what happened while they were gone, there were a lot of dead deadies that used to be alive and lived here.  
“Whoa.” Amanda gasped.  
“I know right.” Matt said.  
Amanda saw Hershel and Maggie with Glenn, Glenn had a manual oxygen mask on his face.  
Bob and Hershel got to work straight away.  
The rest of the night for everybody else was spent clearing out the Walkers in the Cell Blocks and putting them on trucks to take out to the woods and burn, there were too many to just bury between them and the ones that came through the fence.  
Christie and Beth eventually came out of the room all the kids were in and helped.  
In the wee hours of the morning. Daryl told Amanda to take a shower and get some sleep. He joked she was beginning to look like a walker.  
Amanda was about to protest, but Matt and Christie both took a hand and led her towards the showers.  
Amanda was too tired to protest much.  
The water from her shower felt good, she could feel the Deadie ick leaving her body and hair.  
She changed into clean clothes. A purple t shirt and cargo pants she was happy to know that Christie washed her vest and it was air drying.  
Amanda packed everything she usually keeps in her bag, back in her bag before she fell asleep.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chaos and family split apart.

Later that day. Sasha was feeling better, she wasn’t 100 percent but she could stand up and walk. Glenn made it through the night, he was going to be ok as well. Hershel and Bob saved their lives.   
Jake snuck away from the rest of the kids and entered their cell block where Amanda was sleeping. He got into bed with Amanda.  
Amanda wrapped an arm around him. “What are you doing here?”  
“Snuggling.” Jake said.  
Amanda chuckled, “You should be with the rest of the children.”  
“I heard Christie, Carl and Beth talk about some of the stuff that been going on. I was scared.” Jake said.  
Amanda kissed the top of the boy’s head, “You have nothing to be scared of. Everything is ok. All the Deadies are dead and Hershel and Bob saved everybody that were sick but still alive.”   
Christie came in the cell, “There you are, I was looking everywhere for you. I told you to leave Amanda alone.”  
Jake grinned cheekily.  
“It’s ok. I probably need to get up anyway and help with clearing deadies out.” Amanda said sitting up. “Thank you for washing my vest.”  
Christie smiled, “You’re welcome.”  
Amanda put her personal pocket kit in her vest pocket along with her pocket knife and cat key chain. And a water bottle in her cargo pants. She put her boots on.  
“Why do you still carry all that?” Christie asked, “We’re safe here.”  
“I do not go outside without carrying all of this.” Amanda said.  
“Yah, I noticed, I just don’t understand why.” Christie said.  
“I’ve told you many times, always be prepared, and always be on your guard. You two should start carrying your pocket kits and wear your survival bracelets. The past couple days should be a wakeup call. Some of the Deadies got through and if it weren’t for Rick and Carl, they would have gotten through. If you had to evacuate at a moment’s notice, it’s nice to have at least some supplies on hand.   
Christie and Jake understood and grabbed their personal pocket kits and put them in their pockets. They even wore their bracelets.   
Christie put her knife on as well as the pocket hunter on her pants.   
“Good, now then, what’s for breakfast?” Amanda asked with a grin while putting a ponytail in her hair.  
Before anybody could answer, there was an explosion. It shook the whole prison building.  
The three of them looked at each other wide eyed.  
“Go make sure the other children are safe.” Amanda said grabbing her crossbow.   
She ran outside and met up with Matt, Daryl, Bob, Carl, Rick, Maggie, Beth, Tyrese, and Sasha.  
Outside of the Prison Gates was The Governor, and a large group of people with weapons, vehicles and a tank.  
“Shit.” Amanda gasped.  
“Rick! Come down here. We need to talk.” The Governor said.  
“It’s not up to me.” Rick yelled. “There’s a council now. They run this place.”   
“Is Hershel on the council? What about Michonne? She on the council, too?” Governor asked.  
People with weapons brought Hershel and Michonne out, their hands were restrained behind their backs.  
“I don't make decisions anymore.” Rick yelled.  
“You're making the decisions today, Rick. Come down here. Let's… have that talk.” The Governor said.  
Rick looked at Daryl and at Carl, “We can do this.”  
They watched as Rick walked towards the people with weapons by themselves.  
“We can’t take ‘em all on. We'll go through the admin building, through the woods like we planned. We ain't got the numbers no more. When's the last time someone checked the stash on the bus?” Daryl asked.  
“Day before we hit the Big Spot. We were running low on rations then. We're lower now.” Sasha said.  
“Yah, we'll manage. Things go south, everyone heads for that bus. Let everybody know.” Daryl said.  
“What if everybody doesn't know when things go bad? How long do we wait?” Tyrese asked.  
“As long as we can.” Daryl said.  
They were watching Rick talk with the Governor. While Rick was talking. Daryl was handing out guns.  
Amanda slung her crossbow over her back and took a machine gun from her brother.  
“We got to do something.” Carl said.  
“You’re dad’s got it.” Daryl said.  
“They’re talking. We could kill the Governor right now.” Carl said.  
“From 50 yards?” Amanda asked.  
“I'm a good shot. I could end this right now.” Carl said.  
“Yah, or you could start something else.” Amanda said.  
“You got to trust him.” Daryl said.  
After a few minutes, the Governor looked angry, he jumped down from the vehicle he was standing on and grabbed Michonne’s Katana. He put it up to Hershel’s neck.  
Maggie and Beth were crying with fear at this point. This was getting very serious.  
Rick was still talking. It looked like he was getting through some of the people.  
The Governor had too much hate inside him. His soul was dark. He took the Katana and cut Hershel’s neck  
“NO! DADDY!” Maggie and Beth screamed and cried.  
“NO!” Rick yelled in fury, he shot first and hit the Governor’s shoulder.  
The war has started.  
Everybody started shooting.  
Hershel was still alive, he was bleeding out. He tried crawling away.  
Michonne dodged bullets trying to stay alive.   
Rick ended up getting shot in the leg but he took cover behind the broken down bus.  
They watched in horror while shooting while the governor finished the job cutting off Hershel’s head.  
After a few minutes. To everybody’s horror, the tank and vehicles started moving towards the fences. They took down the fences.   
“Mandy we got to get to the bus.” Matt said.  
“Get Christie and Jake on the bus. I’ll cover you.” Amanda said over the roar of gunfire.  
Matt and Amanda kissed quickly and Matt hurried towards Christie and Jake.  
When the tank shot at the building, there were explosions.  
The tank made it all the way through the gates.   
Through all of the commotion, she lost sight of Daryl.  
Christie and Jake came running towards Amanda. Christie had Amanda’s pack and Jake was carrying Christie’s backpack.  
“Where’s Matt, why aren’t you on the bus?” Amanda asked.  
“He was shot in the stomach.” Christie said.  
“We were behind him and he fell.” Jake said.  
He was still alive, he pushed us to go on and leave him, he said no arguments and he covered us until we were out of his sight.” Christie said.  
Amanda had a pained look on her face and tears started forming, she wiped them away. “Both of you, on the bus, now.” She demanded. “No arguments.”  
Amanda shot someone in the head.  
“Go, now.” Amanda demanded.  
Christie and Jake hurried towards the bus.  
A few minutes later, the deadies started showing up.  
Amanda saw the bus leave and she prayed Christie and Jake were on it.   
Amanda searched for Matt, she was hoping he was still alive, she could get him out of there and patch him up.  
After a few minutes she saw Matt. Not only was he shot in the stomach, he was also shot in the chest. He was dead.  
“Damn it.” Amanda said and she had tears in her eyes.  
She did the only thing she could do for her boyfriend, she could prevent him from turning into a Deadie, she took out her knife and stabbed Matt in the head.  
She looked around, this battle was hopeless, the deadies were swarming. She had to get out of there, she tried looking for Daryl but couldn’t find him.  
She fought her way out of the Prison, she killed three deadies, used one as a shield against the bad humans and killed the humans. She made it out into the woods.

She wasn’t safe yet, there were deadies in the woods as well. She killed all that was close to her that was a threat with her gun. She ran out of ammo fast. Luckily the deadies weren’t swarming her anymore, they were more spread out.   
Amanda ran towards the old abandoned farm where Merle was buried. She knew she had to move on, there was nothing for her at that place, but she had to say goodbye to her brother.  
Once she had time to catch her breath. She started crying. The last couple days just seemed like a blur. Between the flu, the getting the medicine, the deadies, Hershel being beheaded, her boyfriend shot and killed and the war and the loss of their home. And now she can’t find her family and she’s alone.   
She spent fifteen minutes talking to her brother saying goodbye. She told him how she met Matt. How they kissed. She told him about how great the prison was. Christie and Jake made friends, they were so happy. She then told him what happened. She was sad that she saw her boyfriend dead. She couldn’t find Daryl or Christie or Jake. She was alone and needed to talk to somebody. She missed Merle and wished he was still alive.  
She had to kill a few Deadies while talking to Merle. There was only three. Pretty easy but messy.  
She had to get some food. She hasn’t eaten anything for a couple days. She looked around the farm house seeing if there was anything she could use. She knew the place was cleared out. While everybody was at the prison it was cleared out of food and supplies. She was in luck though, she found two discarded sandwich sized baggies. She walked outside and looked around the surrounding area for anything edible to eat.   
After about fifteen minutes of searching the surrounding area, she found a grape bush. She ate some off of the bush and filled up the baggies. She set a couple snares then returned back to the farm house, it was getting late so she was going to stay there for the night.   
Amanda looked through the rest of the house for anything that could be useful. The house was pretty bare. She did find a torn pillow case. She took that and put it in her pocket.  
She didn’t find anything else useful, no water, no food, nothing to make a fire. No medicine.  
She found a comfortable spot in the living room to sleep. She didn’t want to be trapped upstairs just in case she had to make a hasty retreat.   
She felt naked without her bag and she knew Christie and Jake had it. She was glad they had it, they could use the items inside.   
Amanda decided to do an inventory of what she did have. She had her pocket survival kit, her pocket knife, her cat keychain, her regular knife in the sheath, her crossbow and Pocket Hunter. She also had one bottle of water in her cargo pants. She decided she was going to save that. The grapes helped with her thirst. She had two empty baggies and a ripped pillow case.   
She walked back outside and tied the baggies on a couple branches being careful not to rip a hole in the baggies. She was hoping to collect the morning dew for a drink tomorrow.  
The next day she woke up groggy. The past few days were taking a toll. The sun has been up for a couple hours. She stretched and packed up her things, she walked outside and checked the baggies, they had the morning dew in them, maybe a swallow of water each.   
She drank the water. It wasn’t enough to satisfy her, but she wasn’t going to drink the bottle yet. She would eat more grapes to quench her thirst.  
She left the house and said goodbye to Merle again and hurried back to the grape bush and filled up the baggies and put them in her pocket. She then ate her fill of grapes before checking her snares. The first snare didn’t have anything in it. She picked it up and put it in her pocket. The second snare didn’t have anything in it either.   
Amanda sighed, she didn’t have time to wait for something to get caught in her snares. She had to find Christie, Jake and Daryl.   
She left the area without looking back.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda has an adventure by herself looking for her people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while since my last update. Real life got in the way.

Amanda walked for a long time, she was looking for the bus. She was hoping Christie and Jake were on the bus and they were ok.  
She had to kill a couple deadies along the way to the bus. She also had to climb a tree to get away from a hoard. Luckily the hoard didn’t see her and she killed so many deadies lately that she probably smelled like one.   
After walking all day in the woods. She only drank a mouthful of water. She finally found her way to the road, she followed what she was hoping were bus tracks.  
She spent the night in a tree close to the road, she tied herself to the tree with her paracord. It was getting cold at night, she was shivering, she wished she had something warm to put on. She took out the pillowcase and put her arms through it, it wasn’t much, but it added a little comfort.  
The next day she braided the paracord. Ate half of one bag of grapes which also helped quench her thirst and continued down the road.   
It took her half a day and ten deadies later to find the bus. What she found she didn’t like. Everybody on the bus was dead.  
“Oh My God.” Amanda gasped.  
She ran towards the bus and she searched through the dead deadies, to her relief, none of them were Daryl, Christie or Jake. She looked on the bus and was afraid to go in there, but she had to make sure. She jumped up on the bus and gagged at the smell. She checked every seat, nobody on that bus was Christie or Jake or Daryl. She wanted to get out of that stinking bus, but she had to check the bags, she needed warmer clothing. She found a couple of ripped up bags and looked inside, some of the people’s belongings were all bloodied up from the deadies. She found a torn and bloody green drawstring backpack that had a gray zipped up hoodie inside that would fit her. Nothing was messed up inside. She grabbed the hoodie. It also contained a couple granola bars and a bottle of water. She took everything out of the ruined bag and put the water in another cargo pants pocket and put the granola bars in a vest pocket and tied the hoodie around her waist until she got cold. She looked some more and the only bag she could find that was in ok condition was a small dark blue fanny pack that had a baggie of trailmix, and a bag of stale m&ms. There was some blood on the outside of it, but nothing was ripped and the inside was fine. After searching the bus some more, she found a clean enough cloth to spit on and wipe the blood off of the fanny pack as good as she could. She put the fanny pack around her waist and was glad to have some sort of bag. She felt naked without her original bag. She didn’t know what to do now. Her goal was to find the bus and find Christie and Jake, and then the three of them could find Daryl. Right now she just wanted to find somebody, anybody. She grabbed her locket in comfort. She thought of where Daryl would be at. She remembered a cabin Daryl and she found when they were hunting. It was full of moonshine. She was going to try there. Maybe her brother was staying there. She knew that was going to be at least half a day’s walk.  
She looked through the bottom of the bus for some food, it looked like somebody was already there and took the food.   
She had to kill a handful more deadies on the way to the cabin. She also, to her relief, killed a squirrel. She was finally going to be able to eat meat.   
She was going to save it and share it with her brother once she found him at the cabin, she was sure he would be there. It would be like a family reunion.  
She found a long enough stick and speared the squirrel through its hands and feet.  
When she finally got to the cabin it was just hitting sunset but to her shock and horror, the cabin was burnt to the ground. The ashes were still hot.  
Amanda looked around, it looked like she was going to sleep in a tree again. But she really wanted to eat the squirrel. She needed protein. Who knew when she would find Daryl.  
She hurried and started a fire by digging a hole in the ground, then found a flat rock and put it in the hole, she then took a piece of cotton with a drop of hand sanitizer on it and set that on fire. She then found little pieces of twigs to feed to the fire.   
She finally got it to the size she wanted it to cook her squirrel by. It was hard to skin the squirrel with the daylight going out, even with the firelight. She eventually got the squirrel skinned and cleaned and the head cut. She was now roasting the meat and burning off all the extra hair that might have been on it.  
She thought that was one of the best squirrels she has ever tasted. It’s been a while since she ate something sustainable.   
Once she was finished with dinner, she put the fire out and hurried to the tree she was going to stay in that night. It was far enough away from the cabin just in case any deadies smelled the cooked meat. She made sure to put her hoodie on. It was getting chilly. The hood made a lot of difference as well. She also took out the pillowcase and put her legs inside it like a makeshift sleeping bag. She tied herself up with the paracord and fell asleep.

The next morning was really cold. She decided to keep her hoodie on. She untied herself from the tree and took the pillowcase off of her legs. She braided her paracord again. She had to move on, she didn’t know where to go, she figured maybe the road would be better. Maybe she could find somebody from the prison.  
She heard a noise and looked down, there were two deadies that were trying to get at her.   
Amanda rolled her eyes and used her crossbow and shot them in the head.  
“Yah, that’s what I wanted to do bright and early in the morning.” Amanda said sarcastically to herself. It was kind of weird hearing her own voice, it’s been so quiet being alone.   
She climbed down the tree and rearranged her hoodie so her vest was on the outside.  
She yanked her arrows out of the deadies’ heads and sanitized them.  
Before she started walking, she spotted tracks. Two sets, and they weren’t deadie tracks which kind of dragged, these looked like live people. One looked like a man’s boot, and one looked like a young woman’s boot. Somebody was here recently.  
She now had a plan, she was going to follow those tracks. Maybe it was somebody from the prison.  
She followed those tracks all day. They led her to a cemetery which even in this world kind of made her uncomfortable. It was nightfall by the time she got there, she was not going to go into a cemetery at night.   
She looked for a tree to climb, she couldn’t find a good tree to climb where she was at. She searched for a tree to climb around the border of the cemetery. She heard deadies coming. She hurried and climbed her tree and watched the deadies walking. She heard a dog bark and could just imagine what was going to happen to that dog. She was also hoping she was going to be able to get down in the morning and no deadies get her. She was just dozing off when she heard a noise of a car and a very familiar voice yell, “BETH!”  
Amanda woke up with a start, was she dreaming?   
She heard Daryl yell BETH again.  
“Daryl.” Amanda gasped. She knew she wasn’t dreaming, she was really close to her brother.  
She hurriedly untied herself and didn’t even waste time braiding the paracord, she just stuffed it in the fanny pack, grabbed her crossbow and hurried down the tree. She heard Daryl yell for Beth again and again.  
She was glad she chose a tree on this side of the cemetery now, she was only maybe about two football fields away from her brother. She hurried after where she heard his voice.  
“DARYL!” Amanda yelled while running.  
That yelling and running attracted about ten deadies.   
“Oh shit.” Amanda gasped.  
She shot one in the head with an arrow and hit another one with the butt of her crossbow and stabbed one in the head.  
“DARYL!” Amanda yelled.  
A Deadie almost bit Amanda’s shoulder, but Daryl came to his sister’s rescue and shot it in the head before it could happen then hit one with his crossbow and stabbed it in the head.   
They yanked their arrows out of the dead deadies and stabbed two more with them. They didn’t have time to load their crossbows again.   
“Come on.” Daryl said.  
They ran away from the deadies that were left.  
Amanda tried stopping when they were safe from the Deadies.   
“Don’t stop. Keep movin.” Daryl said. “Somebody kidnapped Beth.”   
They ran all night following the path Daryl saw the car take Beth. They didn’t talk they just ran and then eventually walked to catch their breath.  
They did a mixture of walking and running all night and into the morning. They stopped when they hit a fork in the road, they lost the trail.  
Daryl and Amanda collapsed on the ground to rest.   
They shared the rest of one of the water bottles.   
After a few minutes. Six men circled around them. They all had weapons.  
“Well, look it here.” The older man said. He bent down and laid a hand on Amanda’s hair.  
Daryl punched the guy in the face.  
“Don’t you touch her.” Daryl seethed and he aimed his crossbow at the man who now had a bloody nose.  
Amanda had her back to Daryl’s and she had her crossbow aimed at another man.  
“Damn it, hold up!” The older man said.  
“I'm claiming his vest. I like them wings.” A man with a bow said.  
“I’m claiming the girl.” Another man said with a grin.  
“I’d think twice before you say that again.” Daryl said but not taking his eyes off of the older man.  
“Hold up.” The man said again and began laughing. “A bowman and bowoman. I respect that. See, a man with a rifle, he could have been some kind of photographer or soccer coach back in the day. And a woman with any gun could have been a soccer mom, a teacher or babysitter back in the day. But a bowman and bowoman is that through and through… What do you have there, a 150 pound draw weight, I’ll be donkey-licked if that don’t fire at least 300 feet per second, I’ve been looking for a weapon like that. Of course, I'd want one with a bit more ammo and minus the oblongata stains.”  
“Get yourselves in some trouble?” The man with the bow asked.  
“You pull that trigger, these boys are gonna drop you and your girl several times over. That what you want? Come on, fella, suicide is stupid. Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people? Name's Joe.”  
Daryl put his crossbow down and Amanda did the same.  
“Daryl.” Daryl said.  
“Mandy.” Amanda said.  
They watched as the men put their weapons down.  
“Well then you two, welcome to the group.” Joe said with a smile.  
At this moment. Amanda was glad Christie and Jake were not here. These men look like trouble. She still hoped Christie and Jake were safe.  
The men introduced themselves to the new comers, Len, Billy, Dan, Tony, and Harley.


	21. Chapter 21

That night, they made camp in the woods. The men put up a wire fence all around just in case of Deadies.   
Amanda collected firewood and Dan, he was balding, he used a magnesium fire starter to start the fire. A couple men had a couple cans of food and a couple men had some beer. Nobody was big on sharing. They ate and drank in front of the others.  
Daryl and Amanda were learning how this group operated. Amanda took out what was left of her grapes and shared half of it with Daryl. She then spent time braiding her paracord back in bracelet form.  
“Why was that unraveled?” Dan asked.  
“I slept in a tree. I tied the paracord around myself so I wouldn’t fall out.” Amanda explained.  
"Why did you sleep in a tree? Sounds uncomfortable." Dan said.  
"Keeps the Deadies away from me." Amanda said.  
“Well you do not have to sleep in a tree tonight.” Joe said with a chuckle.  
Everybody picked a spot on the ground. Daryl slept on a trash bag, Amanda put the hood of her hoodie on her head and put her legs inside the pillowcase.   
The next thing she knew, Daryl was waking her up very early, the sun wasn’t up yet, wasn’t going to be up for hours.   
“Come on.” Daryl said.  
“Where we going?” Amanda asked groggy.  
“Hunting.” Daryl said.  
Amanda nodded with a yawn and put her pillowcase back in her fanny pack then put it around her waist.  
She set up her two snares around where there were tracks, it was too dark still to see what kind of tracks, she could just make an outline of tracks. They went deeper into the woods.  
They were at it for hours. They were on a deer trail. They were hoping a deer would come by.  
They didn’t spot any deer, but there was a rabbit that hopped by.  
Daryl and Amanda kneeled down, Daryl aimed his crossbow at it.  
They waited until the rabbit got a sense of security in its spot, before Daryl shot at it, but shockingly at the same time, another arrow hit the rabbit.  
Daryl and Amanda stood up and glared at the man with the bow.  
“What the hell are you doing?” Daryl asked.  
“Catching me some breakfast.” Len said. “That’s mine, my arrow’s the one that hit first, that Cottontail belongs to me.”  
“We’ve been out here since before the sun came up.” Amanda said.  
Daryl was taking both of the arrows out of the rabbit.  
“You see, the rules of the hunt don’t mean jack out here. Now, that rabbit you’re holding is claimed. Claimed whether you like it or not. So’f I was you, I'd hand it over. Now before you get to wishing you ain't never even got out of bed this morning.” Len said.  
“It ain't yours.” Daryl said getting into Len’s face.  
“You know, I'll bet this bitch here got you all messed up, hmm? Am I right?” Len asked mockingly.  
“Don’t call me a bitch.” Amanda snapped. She was taking her knife out of her pouch.  
“Ooh, feisty little bitch.” Len said with a chuckle. “Was it one of the little'uns? Cause they don't last too long out here.”  
Amanda was thinking about Christie and Jake.  
Daryl took out his knife, but before it could be used. Joe stopped the fight that would have ended badly.  
“Easy, easy, let’s just put our weapons down.” Joe said breaking up the fight. “See if we can’t figure out what’s really the problem here, huh?”  
He circled around the group and looked at Len, “Did you claim it?”  
“Hell yah.” Len said.  
“Well, there you go. That critter belongs to Len.” Joe said.  
“So let’s have it.” Len said.  
Daryl and Amanda glared at the other two.  
“Looks like you may be wanting an explanation. See, going it without a group, that ain’t an option nowadays.” Joe said.  
“Worked for us so far.” Amanda said.  
“Still, it is survival of the fittest. That’s a paradox right there. So I laid out some rules of the road to keep things from going Darwin every couple hours. Keep our merry band together and stress- free. All you got to do is claim. That’s how you mark your territory, your prey, your bed at night. One word, claimed.” Joe said.  
“Mandy and I ain’t claiming nothing.” Daryl snapped.  
“We’re gonna teach them right? The rules say we got to teach him.” Len said eagerly, “I wouldn’t mind teaching the bitch.”  
“Lay a hand on her and you wish you ain’t never been born.” Daryl growled. His knife was raised.  
“Easy now, easy, nobody will touch the Little Lady. Len be respectful. It wouldn’t be fair to punish them for violating a rule they never knew existed.” Joe said.   
“There are no rules anymore.” Amanda said.  
“I’m sorry to disappoint you Little Lady, but there are. You know that, that is why I didn’t kill you two for the crossbows.”  
Daryl and Amanda were still looking at Len.  
Joe gently took one end of the rabbit, Daryl still had the other end.  
“Hey.” Daryl started.  
“Easy there, partner.” Joe said and he cut the rabbit in half and gave one half to Len.  
Len looked at the three of them and walked away.  
“Claimed, that’s all you gotta say.” Joe said. “Hey, ass end is still an end.”  
Joe walked away.  
“What are we going to do?” Amanda whispered.  
“Well, one thing, Joe is right, we need to be in a group, there’s safety in numbers.” Daryl said.  
“How safe do you think we are with them? You know these men all have one thing on their mind when it comes to me.” Amanda whispered.  
“And I’m not gonna let nothing happen to you.” Daryl promised. “For now, we’ll stay with them.”  
Amanda sighed and nodded.  
“Come on.” Daryl said.  
They walked back to the camp and Daryl put the half of rabbit inside the garbage bag.  
The group moved on, they finally got out of the woods and followed a railroad to a railroad station. It took them half a day.   
“So what’s the plan?” Joe asked.  
“How so?” Daryl asked.  
“You’re with us now, but you ain’t soon?” Joe asked.  
“Yep.” Amanda said.  
“So what’s the plan?” Joe asked.  
“Just looking for the right place is all.” Daryl said.  
“Oh, we ain't good enough for you, huh?” Joe asked.  
“Some of you ain’t exactly friendly.” Daryl said.  
“You two ain’t so friendly yourself.” Joe said. “You know you need a group out here.”  
“Maybe we don’t.” Daryl said.  
“No, you do. And so does your little lady. You should be with us.” Joe said. “People don’t got to be friendly. We don’t have to be nice, we don’t have to be brothers in arms. We just got to follow the rules. You claim. If you steal, you keel.”   
There was a deadie, and two of the men took care of it very easily.  
“I know that sounds a little funny, but nobody laughs when something goes missing. And you don't lie. Cuz that's a slippery slope indeed.” Joe said.  
“What happens if you break them?” Amanda asked.  
“Oh, you catch a beatin'.” Joe said. “The severity of which depends upon the offense and the general attitude of the day. But that don't happen much 'cause when men… or women… like us follow rules and cooperate a little bit, well, the world becomes ours.”  
He whistled, they were right by a building.  
“Right there. It’s our abode for the evening.” Joe said.  
“Hey, they’re aint no us.” Daryl said.  
“You two leaving right now? No? Then it sure seems like there’s an us.” Joe said.  
“Are you a cat person Mandy?” Joe asked, “I am. Loved 'em since I was three years old. Vicious creatures. Anyway, I'll tell you, and this is true, ain't nothing sadder than an outdoor cat that thinks it’s an indoor cat.”  
They open up a sliding door and have their weapons ready just in case there were deadies. Luckily there weren’t any.  
Amanda and Daryl were the last ones in the building and Daryl shut the door.  
“They ain't here.” One of the men said.  
“Nobody’s been here for a while.” Dan said.  
“Whoever was, they got all the gas.” Billy said.  
“That don’t matter. We’re getting closer, I can feel it.” Joe said.  
Daryl walked towards a vehicle and put his crossbow and garbage bag on it. Amanda walked over to the vehicle as well, so did the man with the bandana. He said Claimed and looked at Daryl and Amanda.  
He threw the garbage bag off of the car and threw it on the ground.  
Daryl and Amanda went around to the other cars and they were all ‘claimed.’  
Daryl looked around at all the men and picked up his stuff from the floor He took out the half of rabbit out of the bag and indicated for Amanda to follow him outside. Len was glaring at them the whole time.  
Amanda made a little fire while Daryl skinned and cleaned the back end of the rabbit.  
They cooked the rabbit and shared it between them. It wasn’t much but at least it was something.  
They put the fire out after they were finished and didn’t leave any traces of the rabbit near the building. They didn’t want any deadies close to them.  
When they got back inside, they picked their spot on the floor and made ‘camp.’ Len looked like he was still glaring at them.  
Amanda took out her pillowcase and folded it a few times and made a pillow for Daryl.  
“No, you use it.” Daryl said.  
“I have a hoodie for a pillow, you should have a pillow.” Amanda said.  
Daryl accepted the pillowcase, “Thank you.”  
They were lost in their own thoughts for a few hours, Daryl most likely on Beth and Amanda on Christie and Jake, she hoped that wherever they were, they were ok.  
After a few hours. Amanda got up from her spot.  
“Where you going?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda rolled her eyes, “To pee.”  
“Hold up.” Daryl asked.  
Amanda lifted an eyebrow. “What? You want to watch?”  
Daryl rolled his eyes, “You’re not going out there alone.”  
Amanda rolled her eyes, her brother was in big brother mode, she took off her fanny pack, it would be easier to pull her pants down with it off and they walked outside.  
Daryl waited outside while Amanda went behind a couple trees. She was still in Daryl’s line of hearing but behind a tree while she did her business. She thought Daryl was being over protective of her. But she couldn’t fully blame him. They were with men that if they had their way would more than likely ‘claim’ her. And the fact Daryl had to come to her rescue the other night made her angry at herself for getting in that situation, she was just anxious to catch up to him.  
She shivered at the thought and returned back to Daryl.  
Daryl went pee in a different spot but still in the line of hearing of Amanda. It was easier for him since he could stand up.  
They walked back inside and laid down lost in their own thoughts.   
After a couple more hours. Len was angry.  
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Len said and walked towards Daryl and Amanda, “Christ. Give it here.”  
“You step back.” Daryl said.  
“My half was in the bag. Now it’s gone. Now ain’t nobody around here interested in no half a damn cottontail except the two of you.” Len said. “Ain’t that right?”  
“You’re the only one still thinking about that crap.” Daryl said standing up.  
“Empty your bag.” Len said.  
“He said step back.” Amanda said grabbing the bag away from Len.  
Len was glaring at the siblings.   
Joe snatched the bag away from Amanda.  
“Did you take his rabbit, Daryl? Mandy? Just tell me the truth.” Joe said.  
“No we didn’t.” Amanda said.  
“We didn’t take nothing.” Daryl said.  
“What do we got here? Come on.” Joe said and he emptied the contents of Daryl’s bag.  
Inside was the top half of the rabbit.  
“Well look at that.” Joe said.  
“You put that there, didn't you? When we went out to take a piss.” Daryl said angrily.  
“You lied.” Len said.  
“Didn’t you?” Daryl said angrily and pushed Len.  
“You lied. You stole.” Len said angrily. “We gonna teach these fools or what Joe?”  
Daryl was about to hit Len.  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Joe said getting in the middle of the two, “Now. Daryl and Mandy said they didn’t take your half of the rabbit. So we got a little conundrum here. Either they’re both lying, which is an actionable offense, or… or you didn't plant it on him like some pussy, punk-ass, cheating, coward cop, did you? 'Cuz while that wouldn't be specifically breaking the rules, it'd be disappointing.”  
“It would… I didn’t.” Len said with a glare at Daryl and Amanda.  
“Good.” Joe said and looked at Daryl and Amanda.  
Amanda was a little afraid, but she figured she could take on a couple of them.  
“Well.” Joe said and then punched Len in the face and knocked him down, “Teach him a lesson Gents. He's a lying sack of shit I'm sick of it. Teach him all the way.”   
The rest of the men started beating the shit out of Len.  
“I saw him do it.” Joe said.  
“Why didn't you try to stop him?” Amanda asked.  
“He wanted to play that out. I let him.” Joe said, “You two told the truth and he lied. You understand the rules. He doesn't.”  
Joe picked up the head part of the rabbit and threw it at Daryl, “Looks like you get the head too.”  
Daryl put the top half of the rabbit back in the bag.  
The men eventually took Len outside and started beating him up outside.  
Daryl and Amanda did not want to participate.  
“What should we do?” Amanda asked.  
“Get some sleep.” Daryl said laying down. “Put your hood up to drown out the noise.”  
Amanda did as she was told and laid down beside her brother. It worked a little bit to drown out the horrible noise.  
After a while, the men came inside, Len was not with them.  
Amanda gasped and looked at Daryl.  
“Don’t think about it.” Daryl said.  
They could have slept in the empty car that Len claimed, but at that moment, it just didn’t seem right.

The next morning Amanda woke up to the men moving about.  
“Looks like we’re heading out.” Daryl said.  
They packed up their things and walked out the door with the rest of the group. They saw what happened to Len. He was all bloodied up with one of his own arrows in his eye.  
Amanda gasped. She knew Len was horrible, but that was a horrible way to die.  
“Come on, don’t look at him.” Daryl said and led his sister away from the bloodied corpse.  
They walked on and only stopped to take bathroom breaks. Amanda felt really self-conscious out in the woods with the men when she was peeing, but she knew Daryl wasn’t that far away from her.  
After a while, Joe took a swig from a flask and offered it to Daryl.  
“White Lightning, easiest thing to make with the least amount of supplies… I’d start slow if I was you, your stomach’s probably emptier than you think.” Joe said.  
Daryl took a swig and was fine.  
“I ain't been lit at dawn since before everything fell apart.” Daryl said giving the flask back.  
Joe offered a swig to Amanda and she shook her head no.  
“Fell apart?” Joe asked, “I never looked at it like that. Seems to me like things are finally starting to fall together. At least for a guy like you and me. Not sure about the Little Lady.”  
“What do you mean?” Daryl asked.  
“Living like this, surviving.” Joe said. “We've been doing this from the start, right?”  
They walked towards a sign  
“Getting closer.” Billy said.  
“Closer to what?” Amanda asked and looked at the sign, “Terminus.”  
“You seen this before?” Daryl asked.  
“Oh, yah. I’ll tell you what it is. It’s a lie. Ain't no sanctuary for all. Ain't gonna welcome guys like us with open arms. Might not even welcome Little Lady in just for association with us.” Joe said.  
“So that’s where we’re headed?” Daryl asked.  
“So now you’re asking?” Joe asked.  
“That's right.” Daryl said.  
“We were in a house minding our own business and this walking piece of fecal matter was hiding in the home. Strangled our colleague Lou and left him to turn. Lou came at all of us. He lit out. We tracked him to these tracks, one of those signs, and thus we've got a destination in mind.” Joe said.  
“You see his face?” Amanda asked.  
“Only Tony and that’s enough for a reckoning.” Joe said.  
Tony was looking at something on the ground and was about to grab it.  
“Claimed.” Daryl said.  
Tony stopped going for it and Daryl picked it up, it was a tomato.  
That was cool, saying claimed actually worked.   
Daryl and Amanda were hanging back in the group. Tony said he spotted the man they were looking for, him and his group.  
“What do you think?” Daryl asked.  
“About what?” Amanda asked.  
“Should we stay or go?” Daryl asked.  
“You’re leaving it up to me?” Amanda asked.  
Daryl nodded.  
“I don’t want to hurt anybody because what they’re doing is not our fight, but… we do need a group. Safety in numbers.” Amanda said.  
Daryl nodded, “I was thinking the same thing.”  
“And we’re getting a hang of this claiming rule.” Amanda said.  
“The rules are stupid but easy to follow.” Daryl agreed.  
They needed to go catch up to the group. They were lagging behind because they weren’t sure if they were going to stay or not.  
“Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on New Year's Eve. Joe said and laughed, “Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh? Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi.”  
“Joe, hold up.” Daryl said, he and Amanda had their crossbows at the ready. They finally caught up to the group and saw who they ambushed, it was Rick, Michonne and Carl.  
“You’re stopping me on eight, Daryl.” Joe said, Amanda saw that he had a gun pointed at Rick’s temple.  
“Just hold up.” Daryl said.  
“Let’s just talk about this.” Amanda said.  
“This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothing to talk about.” Tony said.  
“The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time.” Joe said. “Say your piece.”   
“These people, you’re gonna let em go.” Daryl said.  
“These are good people.” Amanda said.  
“Now, I think Lou would disagree with you on that. I’ll, of course, have to speak for him and all cuz your friend here strangled him in a bathroom.” Joe said.  
“You want blood, I get it. Take it from me, man.” Daryl said. He put his crossbow down.  
“Daryl no.” Amanda said  
“Shut up Mandy.” Daryl said.  
Joe had a weird look on his face, “This man killed our friend, and you say he’s good people, see, now that right there is a lie. It’s a lie. Teach him, fellas. Teach him all the way.”  
“NO!” Amanda yelled.  
All hell broke loose  
Dan was on Carl, Joe was on Rick, Harley was on Daryl, Tony had a gun pointed at Michonne and Billy was on Amanda.  
“I’m gonna have fun claiming you.” Billy said. He punched Amanda in the gut which made her double over, he then punched her in the face and got her to the ground. He tried to get her pants off but she kicked him where it counted. He was angry and tried stomping on her face, she dodged the kick and tripped him.   
“Oh, you’re gonna regret that bitch.” Billy seethed and he started fighting harder.   
“Didn’t anybody tell you it’s not right to hit a girl?” Amanda tried to joke in this dire situation. She was trying to get the upper hand.  
There was a gunshot and Joe missed hitting Rick. Amanda was too busy trying not to get creamed by Billy to pay attention to what was going on. There was another gun shot and this one was by Tony who missed hitting Michonne.   
Amanda finally got off of the ground and had a better fighting chance. She took her knife out. Unfortunately at that moment Billy took out his gun and aimed it at Amanda.  
Before anything else could be done. They saw Rick take a bite out of Joe’s neck and Joe was sputtering blood. It distracted all of the Claimers and Michonne used that distraction to shoot Tony in the head with his own gun.  
Amanda threw her knife at Billy’s chest. He wasn’t expecting that, but she just missed the heart. There was still a lot of blood. He shot his gun at Amanda, but she dodged out of the way just in time, it still grazed her arm. Amanda yelled in pain and anger, she grabbed the gun that was still in Billy’s hand and forced it away from her and anybody else, she then punched him in the face and disarmed him.  
She then yanked the knife out of Billy’s chest and stabbed it in his head like she would a deadie.  
Daryl punched Harley in the face and stomped on his face until it was a bloody mess.   
Dan had the knife on Carl’s throat again.   
“I’ll kill him.” Dan threatened.  
“Let the boy go.” Michonne demanded. She had the gun pointed at Dan.  
Rick finished the job on Joe and then glared at Dan, “He’s mine.”  
Rick looked very scary with the blood on his mouth, Dan let go of Carl and put his hands up.  
“Get away from me.” Dan said. “Please.”  
Rick took his knife and stabbed Dan over and over and over again.  
Carl ran to Michonne and Michonne was embracing him like a mother would a child.  
Everybody watched as Rick took his vengeance on Dan.  
At that moment Carl was afraid of his father. Rick tried to embrace him afterwards but Carl dodged the embrace and shut himself in the car.  
“Give him some time.” Michonne said and she went inside the car as well to comfort Carl  
Daryl went towards Amanda, “Are you ok?”  
Amanda nodded.  
“That Son of a bitch didn’t…” Daryl started.  
Amanda shook her head no, “He tried.”  
“If he wasn’t dead already, I’d kill him myself.” Daryl said.  
Amanda nodded, “I know.”  
“Let me see your arm.” Daryl said.  
“I’m fine.” Amanda said.  
“You’re still bleeding.” Daryl said.  
He took the pillowcase out of Amanda’s fanny pack and cut it into strips, he tied one of the strips on Amanda’s arm.  
“Thanks.” Amanda said and without saying anything else, she climbed up a tree.  
“What are you doing up there?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda sighed, “I just want to be alone right now, I’m gonna try to sleep.”  
Daryl nodded in understanding. He watched his sister tie herself to the tree so she couldn’t fall.  
Nothing else was said that night. Everybody was lost in their own thoughts.  
Amanda couldn’t sleep for very long, she was up at daybreak and braided her paracord bracelet again, Daryl was collecting the guns off of the men.  
Daryl put some water on a cloth and gave it to Rick. They were talking. Amanda couldn’t make out everything that was being said. Rick still had Joe’s blood around his mouth, in his beard and on his hands. He was a bloody mess.  
“It's not on you, Daryl or Amanda. You being back with us here, now, that's everything.” Amanda heard Rick say. “You’re my brother.”  
“Hey, what you did last night, anybody would have done that.” Daryl said.  
“No, not that.” Rick said.  
“Something happened.” Daryl said. “That ain't you.”   
“Daryl, you saw what I did to Tyrese. It ain't all of it, but that's me. That's why I'm here now. That's why Carl is. I want to keep him safe. That's all that matters.” Rick said.  
Amanda got down from her tree and began collecting the supplies off of the men. She took the fire starter from Dan and put it in her fanny pack. There were also some clean bandanas in Tony’s pack, she took those and put them in her fanny pack. They collected a couple guns and much needed ammo, there was a little food and blankets in the packs.  
They all shared a couple cans of peaches that were in one of the packs before starting on their way. There wasn’t a whole lot of talking involved.  
They spotted a fallen sign that said Terminus.  
“We’re getting close, be there before sun down.” Daryl said.  
“Now we head through the woods, we don’t know who they are.” Rick said.  
“All right.” Daryl said.  
They headed through the woods until they hit a fence that looked down upon Terminus.  
“We all spread out, watch for a while, see what we see, and get ready. We all stay close.” Rick said.  
They all separated to check the boarder of Terminus. Rick went one way, Michonne and Carl went one way, Daryl went one way and Amanda went one way. Daryl didn’t let Amanda stray too far away from him though.  
“Are you always going to be this over protective for now on?” Amanda asked.  
“I lost you twice.” Daryl said, “So yes.”  
Amanda sighed and rolled her eyes. She couldn’t blame him for being over protective though, she was his younger sister, they were the only blood they had left. She felt the same way about Christie and Jake. Those two became her family as well.  
Once the perimeter was checked, they watched Rick bury a bag of weapons for just in case. Amanda put her pocket hunter and her pocket hunter arrows in there.  
They hopped the fence into Terminus, they were on guard.   
They entered a building and heard a woman talking into a microphone talking about Terminus, “Those who arrive survive. Follow the tracks to the point where all lines intersect. There are maps at the crossings to help guide you with your journey. Sanctuary for all. Community for all.”  
The members of Terminus stopped what they were doing and just stared at the intruders.  
“Hello.” Rick said.  
“Well, I bet Albert is on perimeter watch. You here to rob us?” A man asked.  
“No. We wanted to see you before you saw us.” Rick said.  
“Makes sense. Usually we do this where the tracks meet. Welcome to Terminus. I’m Gareth. Looks like you’ve been on the road for a good bit.” Gareth said looking the intruders over.  
“We have.” Rick said, “Rick, this is Carl, Daryl, Amanda and Michonne.”   
Gareth waved, the silence was awkward. “You’re nervous. I get it. We were all the same way. We came here for sanctuary. That what you’re here for?”   
“Yes.” Rick said.  
“Good. You found it. Hey, Alex. This isn’t as pretty as the front. We got nothing to hide, but welcome wagon is a whole lot nicer. Alex will take you, ask you a few questions. Uh, but first, we need to see everyone’s weapons. If you could just lay them down in front of you.” Gareth said.  
Everybody was hesitant, in these times, it’s bad being without your weapon. Everybody looked to Rick for the answer.  
“All right.” Rick said and he put his weapons down.  
“I’m sure you understand.” Gareth said.  
“Yes, I do.” Rick said.  
Everybody put their weapons down, and were patted down. They felt Amanda’s pocket kit and she took it out of her pocket and showed them what it was.  
Surprisingly they didn’t feel anything in the pocket that held her pocket knife and cat keychain.   
“I'd hate to see the other guy.” Alex said.  
“You would.” Rick said.  
“They deserve it?” Alex asked.  
“Yes.” Carl said.  
“Just so you know, we aren't those kind of people, but we aren't stupid either. And you shouldn't be stupid enough to try anything stupid. As long as everyone's clear on that, we shouldn't have any problems. Just solutions.” Gareth said.  
Their weapons were given back.   
“Ok. Follow me. Alex said.  
They were led out of the building.  
“So how long's this place been here?” Daryl asked.  
“Since almost the start. When all the camps got overrun, people started finding this place. I think it was instinct, you know? Follow a path. Some folks were heading to the coast, others out west or up north, but they all wound up here.” Alex said.  
They were in an area which had tables and chairs and a woman was cooking some meat.  
“Hi. Heard you came in the back door. Smart. You'll fit right in here.” The woman said.  
“Hey, Mary, would you fix each of these new folks a plate for me?” Alex asked.  
“Why do you do it? Why do you let people in?” Michonne asked.  
“The more people become a part of us, we get stronger. That's why we put up the signs, invite people in. It's how we survive.” Alex said. “Here.”  
He handed Carl a plate of food.  
The next thing anybody knew, Rick attacked Alex and had him in a choke hold with a gun to his head. The others acted on instinct and had their weapons trained on others.  
“Where the hell did you get this watch?” Rick asked.   
Alex didn’t answer.  
“Where the hell did you get this watch?” Rick asked again.  
“You want answers? You want anything else? You get 'em when you put down the gun.” Alex said.  
“”I see your man on the roof with a sniper rifle. How good's his aim? Where'd you get the watch? Where'd you get the watch?” Rick asked angry.  
“Don't do anything! I have this! You just put it down. You put it down! You want to listen to me. There's a lot of us.” Alex said.  
“Where did you get the watch?” Rick asked again.  
“I got it off a dead one. I didn’t think he’d need it.” Alex said.  
“What about the riot gear? The poncho?” Rick asked.  
“Got the riot gear off a dead cop. Found the poncho on a clothesline.” Gareth said.  
“Gareth, we can wait.” Alex said.  
“Shut up, Alex.” Gareth said.  
“You talk to me.” Rick said to Gareth.  
“What’s there left to say? You don’t trust us anymore.” Gareth said.  
“Gareth.” Alex said scared.  
“Shut up.” Gareth said.  
“Gareth please.” Alex begged.  
“It's okay. It's okay. Rick, what do you want?” Gareth asked.  
“Where are our people?” Rick asked.  
“You didn't answer the question.” Gareth said.  
What happened after was a blur, a gun was fired and Alex was shot. Men were shouting and they were being shot at. They were trying to find a way out of Terminus but no matter where they ran too, they were getting shot at.   
They heard voices yelling for help and banging inside metal containers.  
“What the hell?” Amanda asked.  
“Let us out.” They heard.  
“Keep going.” Rick said.  
They ended up inside a building that was full of lit candles.  
“What the hell is this place?” Daryl asked.  
“These people, I don’t think they’re trying to kill us.” Michonne said.  
“No, they were aiming at our feet.” Rick said.  
There.” Rick said and they ran towards a door. Somebody shut the door.  
“Damn it.” Amanda cursed.  
“There.” Daryl said.  
They ran to another door and went through. They were being shot at again.  
They were outnumbered and out gunned, they were trapped.  
There was a sniper trained on Carl  
“Drop your weapons! Now!” Gareth said.  
Everybody dropped their weapons.  
“Now! Ringleader, go to your left. The train car, go. You do what we say, the boy goes with you. Anything else, he dies and you end up in there anyway.” Gareth said.  
Rick started walking slowly towards the train car.  
“Now the male archer.” Gareth said.  
Daryl glared at the enemies and looked at Amanda and started walking slowly towards the train car.  
“Now the samurai.” Gareth said.  
Michonne didn’t like being called a samurai but she too walked slowly towards the car.  
“Stand at the door, ringleader, archer, samurai, in that order.” Gareth said.  
“My son. My sister.” Rick and Daryl said at the same time. Go, kid.” Gareth said.  
Carl started walking slowly towards the car.  
“Ringleader, open the door and go in.” Gareth said.   
“I'll go in with him.” Rick said.  
“Don't make us kill him now and then the girl.” Gareth threatened.  
Amanda’s heart was pounding as she watched as her brother and friends walked inside the car.  
“Ok girl, your turn.” Gareth said.  
She could feel all eyes on her as she walked to the car.  
Daryl was waiting for her right inside the car just enough where he couldn’t be seen by the snipers.  
Amanda walked up the stairs and hugged her brother.  
“You ok?” Daryl asked.  
Amanda nodded.  
Once everybody was inside, the enemies shut and locked the door behind them.  
It was very dark.  
“Rick?” A familiar voice asked in surprise and relief. It was Glenn. He was with Maggie, Sasha and Bob along with others.  
“You’re here. You’re here.” Rick said.  
Rick looked at the strangers.  
“They’re our friends, they helped save us.” Maggie said.  
“Yah. Now they’re friends of ours.” Daryl said.  
“For however long that’ll be.” One of the new friends said.  
“No.” Rick said. “They’re gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out.”  
“Find out what?” The man asked.  
“They’re screwing with the wrong people.” Rick said. He had an intense look in his eyes.  
Everybody started getting to work making makeshift weapons. They were using zippers, belt buckles, anything that could do any damage.   
Amanda was going to use her pocket knife.  
Amanda was keeping lookout through the only outside light they had.  
“We have four of them bastards coming our way.” Amanda said.  
“Alright, you all know what to do, go for their eyes first.” Rick said. “Then their throats.”  
Everybody got into a fighting stance.  
“Put your backs up against the walls on either end of the car.” A man ordered.  
Before anything else could be said or done. The roof of the car opened up and somebody threw a tear gas grenade in the car.  
“MOVE!” Abraham yelled.  
Everybody moved away from the grenade before it went off but the tear gas was making them cough   
Men wearing gas masks entered the car and started hitting the prisoners.   
They seized four of the prisoners. Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Bob.  
They tried fighting but it was no use. Once the men took the four, they shut the others in again.  
They were yelling and pushing at the door trying to get it open but it wasn’t working.  
They were also still making their weapons so when they do get out, they will be ready to fight.  
Amanda kept lookout again while the others continued with their weapons.  
There was an explosion.  
“Oh My God!” Amanda gasped.  
“What the hell is going on?” Abraham asked banging on the door.  
“Someone hit us.” Rosita said.  
“Maybe our people got free.” Sasha said.  
“Excuse me.” Eugene said.  
“What are you doing?” Amanda asked.  
“I might be able to use this shell to compromise the door. From the sounds of things, there might not be anybody around to open it.” Eugene said.  
“Eugene, I’m sorry, but… shut up.” Tara said.  
“Ok.” Eugene said.  
“Hey.” Carl said, “My dad’s going to be back. They all are.”  
“They are.” Maggie said.  
“And we need to get ready to fight our way out with them when they do.” Amanda said.  
They returned to sharpening what they were going to use for weapons.  
They could see walkers through the crack as well as a lot of dust and smoke from the explosion and gun smoke.  
They heard a lot of screaming and gun shots. But they still couldn’t get out of the damn car.  
“What’s the cure Eugene?” Sasha asked.  
“It’s classified.” Eugene said.  
“But we don’t know what’s gonna happen.” Amanda said.  
“Leave him be.” Abraham said.  
“We need to keep working.” Rosita said.  
“But it’s time to hear it.” Sasha said. “Cuz we don’t know what’s coming next.”  
“What’s coming next is we get out of this.” Michonne said.  
“Even if I told you all, even if I provided step-by-step instructions complete with illustrations and a well-composed FAQ and I went red-ring, the cure would still die with me.” Eugene said.  
“ I'm not gonna let that happen.” Abraham said.  
“The best-case scenario, we step out into a hellstorm of bullets, fire, and walkers. I'm not fleet of foot. I sure as hell can't take a dead one down with sharp buttons and hella confidence.” Eugene said.  
“Yah, but we can and we will.” Michonne said.  
“You don’t owe us anything, not yet. But we just want to hear it.” Sasha said.  
“You don’t have to.” Rosita said.  
“I was part of a 10-person team at the Human Genome Project to weaponize diseases to fight weaponized diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms with pathogenic microorganisms. Fire with fire. Interdepartmental drinks were had, relationships made, information shared. I am keenly aware of all the details behind fail-safe delivery systems to kill every living person on this planet. I believe with a little tweaking on the terminals in DC, we can flip the script. Take out every last dead one of them. Fire with fire. All things being equal, it does sound pretty badass.” Eugene said.  
“So lets get back to work.” Maggie said.  
Before anything else was said, the door opened up, it was Rick with a machine gun.  
“Come on.” Rick yelled. “Fight to the fence.”  
They ran towards the fence, stabbing Deadies left and right.  
“Up and over.” Rosita said.  
They made it to the fence and they all began climbing over the fence.  
They went searching for the bag of weapons that Rick buried earlier.  
“Right here.” Daryl said.  
“The hell we still around here for?” Abraham asked.  
“Guns, some supplies.” Rick said, “Go along the fences, use the rifles, take out the rest of them.”  
“What?” Glenn asked.  
“They don’t get to live.” Rick said.  
“Rick, we got out, it’s over.” Glenn said.  
“It’s not over until they’re all dead.” Rick said.  
“The hell it isn’t, that place is on fire, full of walkers.” Rosita said.  
“I’m not dicking around with this crap, we just made it out.” Abraham said.  
“The fences are down. They’ll run or die.” Maggie said.  
Before anything else could be said. Someone came into view. It was Carol, she was a mess. She was carrying Daryl’s crossbow.  
Daryl ran to Carol and bear hugged her.   
The others slowly walked towards them.  
“Did you do that?” Rick asked Carol indicating the explosion.  
Carol smiled. “You need to come with me.”  
Rick nodded  
The weapons in the bag were divvied up. Amanda got her pocket hunter back. And since she sadly no longer had her crossbow, she took the compound bow. She also got a knife, this one kind of looked like her LMF but smaller, it was a Gerber Prodigy. It will get the job done.  
The group followed Carol to wherever she was leading them.  
Carol gave Daryl his crossbow back.  
“Hey, I’m sorry you lost your crossbow, I know how much you loved it.” Daryl said.  
Amanda sighed, “I loved it because you and Merle got it for me.”  
Carol led the group to a cabin. When they got there, Tyreese and Jake were standing outside, Tyreese was holding Judith.  
It was a fantastic family reunion. Rick ran to Judith, Tyreese ran to Sasha, Jake ran to Amanda.  
Amanda was so happy to see Jake.   
“Amanda, I thought I would never see you again.” Jake said.  
“I’m so glad to see you are not hurt. Where’s Christie?” Amanda asked.  
Jake frowned, “I lost her when I lost you. She had me run towards the bus while she killed some Deadies, she said she was going to be right back, but she never was.”  
“Oh My God.” Amanda gasped and tears were running down her face.  
Jake started to cry too. “I’m sorry I missed the bus.”  
“I am so glad you missed it, it was overrun by Deadies.” Amanda said still crying over the loss of whom she thought of as a sister. “How… How did you escape the prison?”  
“When I couldn’t find Christie, I found Lizzie and Mika, and Tyreese and Judith. Tyreese took care of us.” Jake said.  
Amanda looked around, she didn’t see Lizzie and Mika anywhere.  
“Carol found us later and we were living together. Lizzie was acting weird about the Deadies.” Jake said. “She killed Mika.”  
Amanda shivered, “That’s horrible. Um… So... What happened to Lizzie?”  
“Um… she died.” Jake said uncomfortable.  
Amanda nodded.  
“I don’t know if the fire is still burning.” Rick said.  
“It is.” Carol said.  
“We need to go.” Rick said.  
“Yah, but where.” Daryl said.  
“I don’t know, but far from there.” Rick said.


End file.
